2 good questions

There are more good questions here

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=179

Q. What is it that the enemies of the United States want?

 

...Only two people in the world actually believe that there's any possibility of a new caliphate being established, stretching from Spain to Indonesia: Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. So while it depends somewhat on the particular extremist, the fundamental answer is that they want to be left alone. There are no Muslim armies occupying the United States; it is we who are there, not they who are here. The fundamental demand is a measure of respect and distance.

 

 

...

Q. How does America compare to the rest of the world – really?

Freeman's view: The press has inadvertently aided and abetted a kind of national complacency and smugness that contributes to the kind of hubris that has gotten us into trouble in Iraq, for example.

There are virtually no international comparisons stated in the press. You read that the American health system is causing GM and Ford to go under, and that 45 million Americans are uninsured, but you don't hear about how the World Health Organization ranks the United States 37^th in terms of the quality of health care, just barely ahead of Cuba; or that we spend twice as much as Canadians on health care but they manage to cover everyone and provide a higher quality overall. Our high school students think they're the best in the world, but in fact they're at the bottom of the pack internationally...