Often, the leaders of the Arab world capitalize on these feelings of anger and inferiority to distract citizens from their own failed rule. Economic stagnation is blamed on a nexus of crippling political decisions handed down by America. Citizens are told their way of life is under assault. The youth display their loyalty to the state by strapping bombs to their chest and blowing themselves up. So long as the citizens are kept riled up, they have little time to reflect on the mismanagement and oppression of their own leaders. Nor do they push for things like equality, democracy, market privatization or any number of policies that are badly needed.

More shocking is the strain of anti-Americanism here at home. Leftist newspapers and academics deconstruct America for not being a utopia. They vent the frustrations and problems of modern times at America. They do not hold other countries to this level of scrutiny. Nor do they compare the United States to other countries. They merely turn their scrutiny inward, as if they were guilty and ashamed for their own affluence. I suppose it is a measure of how good things are in America that critics choose to focus on modern problems. It is a safe bet that the citizens of Zimbabwe are more worried about whether their children will eat, than on contemplating their own existential angst.

Anyway, this self-loathing and empathy for our attackers is worse than decadent, it is dangerous insofar as it reinforces to the radicals that attacking the United States is the best way to win concessions. To which I would add, we should not feel guilty for being the world's only superpower. We should not feel guilty for standing up for ourselves. We should not feel guilty for rooting out groups of people who sit around and plot ways to murder as many Americans as possible. Nor should we feel guilty for having a president who is willing to do something about it all.