Some informed comments from Mark Steyn about being a citizen in the USA:
Citizenship is about allegiance. We benefit from our rights as citizens of the state and in return we accept our duties as citizens of the state. And let’s not be embarrassed about supposedly obsolescent concepts like the “nation-state”. If we’ve learned anything since September 11th, it’s that, if it were left to the multilateral acronyms — the UN, EU, even NATO — Osama bin Laden would have the run of the planet. The great evil of September 11th is being resisted by a small number of nation-states, by the United States, the United Kingdom and a handful of others. Ultimately, it is as Americans or Britons, Australians or Canadians that we resist the assault on our liberties.
Source: War and Remembrance