Author and Guardian Correspondent Chris McGreal gives a veteran journalist's view of the challenges foreign correspondents encounter in coving America. McGreal discusses the unique characteristics he found when he came to write about U.S. politics and policy in Washington, D.C., and how he strategized with his editors to find ways to go deeper into understanding the sentiments, outrage and grievance marking America’s political scene. International reporters facing similar challenges may learn valuable lessons on how he has overcome them. McGreal’s expeience coving Latin America, Africa and the Mideast helped prepare him for this assignment. After 15 years in the States, he has concerns about “the fragility of society” in America and Western Europe, but he also discusses “heroic countries” he has covered and what the world can learn from them. He even found some evidence of that in the U.S., where many individuals fight to do the right thing in various situaitons and for good causes. Observes McGreal: "America I do think has an ability to confront its past."