Most idiotic, loaded question ever....
An American is a person who will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
An American is also a person that will do whatever it takes to become overweight, lazy, and beat his wife.
Americans are just as often lazy and worthless as they are helpfull to society--wait, did I say that???
An American is the kind of guy who, given access to a time machine, would turn back the slave ships.... Not to prevent slavery, but to prevent the blacks from overrunning the wellfare system 250 years down the line.
That's an American.
Oh yeah, and an American will readily have sex with a Japanese potato, but that'll be our little secret.