Western culture! How fortunate we are!

[JMS]

Ok, I changed my mind and decided to post! I consider you all my friends and decided I wanted to share with all of you!
So, here it is! I hope you will post!

I have recently had one of those moments that I get now and then! You know! The kind that slap you upside the head to remind you of how good we all have it here in many of the western cultures!
I was reading a news article on the faces of Pakistani women who had their faces melted half off by acid for no better reason than their suitor was rejected in a marriage proposal. These things do not happen where I live, At least, They are the exception and not the rule! The next article I read was a story about how the Russian army was taking everything that was not nailed down in Georgia as they invaded! It reminded me of the fact that war is about Killing people, breaking things, raping and pillaging! Every other nation understands this, but the west, and particularly the United States of America has avoided the raping and pillaging part of war! In fact, America along with a handful of other nations went contrary to the rule of war, which states that to the victor goes the spoils, and instead rebuilt the countries that they pummeled! In general, these countries that we pummeled in war were not crushed so that we may take whats theirs and make it ours, no, on the contrary, we went to war with these countries to wrest the power out of the hands of a dictator or brutal regime and hand the power back to the people where it belongs!
These things are what make me proud to be an American! These things remind me that we live in a very special and fragile bubble in history that deserves our protection! We should enjoy this brief respite in history where a large percentage of us consider that there are ideals greater than our own selves rather than the selfish and hedonistic world that once was, and surely will be again if we don't take pains to protect this bubble in history!

Please add what you see that makes the western culture so great, and where you see that we might need to make adjustments!
One area that I see we need to make adjustments is we need to complain less about our country and do more for our country!

Speak specifically of your own country or of western culture as a whole please!
This is not intended as a pi ssing contest as to who is the better nation, so please, don't make it as such!


Mark Avery