Originally Posted by cmac2012

This is one of my main concerns about our international conduct. Pride is seriously dangerous stuff and we're choking on it to some degree.

We, the US, are in somewhat of no-win position though. Other nations expect us to be the deep-pocketed aid-machine, and we do that to some degree -- such as after the Sunami -- but the same tools that enable us to offer that kind of aid are also the tools we use for warfare, in large part.

And, people do want to live here more than in their own country, fairly often. Some of that is just due to sheer wealth, but much is due to our legal system, where the little guy has much more opportunity to seek redress from some wrong, private or gub-mint, than is common in much of the world.

But then we tarnish our good features with mis-adventures like Vietnam or the current repeat in Iraq.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. The US is good and bad. Hopefully enough people here can learn from our mistakes to move this thing forward.