You're really stretching with the word "obsession", not to mention being inflammatory. It's an abbreviation that happens to lose specificity (as you might expec

You're really stretching with the word "obsession", not to mention being inflammatory. It's an abbreviation that happens to lose specificity (as you might expect of an abbreviation - therefore, one must depend on context). In addition, it's a gonna globally common abbreviation. I'm sure the relative commonness of "the US" is higher outside the US, but many people outside the US still call it America too.