Oh America, where is your pride?

I often wonder why so many people are so concerned with how the United States is viewed by the rest of the world. I do believe that the United States should live up to its principles and when it falls short of them we should take steps to identify and correct them. However the recent trend of self-degradation as some sort of public policy is not only unhealthy it is both self defeating in totally unnecessary.

Whom, it should be asked, are we trying to impress? As to most of the world it is like a band of rouge thieves who sit around the campfire and criticize their well to do target of opportunity, justifying their behavior on the theory that their victim deserves scorn and robbery because of his wealth. And we the target of the derision and scorn accept the judgment of the villains because? We want to be liked?, by those whose form of government and history violate not only common sense but common decency. We are overly concerned by the opinions of thugs, butchers, despots who show little if any concern for the good of their own citizenry. These are the countries that the United States prostrates themselves to?

Then there are our allies primarily in Europe whose entire history is a tale of petty bickering interrupted by blood baths of Royal concerns at the expense of the infringement of their peoples freedoms and well being. The constant squabbles which have led to our being called upon to separate the waring enlightened class and spend vast fortunes to rebuild domains caused by their petty rivalries.

Despite the revisionist history about the late twentieth century, for the most part the United States stood alone against what was and may be again an "evil empire" bent on the enslavement of the very people that we sacrificed both blood and treasure to protect and free while they spit on our soldiers and berated our efforts. We hang our heads in shame as these same people look down their nose at us?

Oh America, where is your pride, that you would look to the world for justification? Look to your core, look to your history, look to all that has made you great and sacrafice to make it great again, but do not look to the world for an example, be the example.