The Oblivious Empire &The War on Terrorism

These stories from Rereading America about how America is ignorant and selfish make so much sense. As an American, my first instinct is to defend America and whatever happens. I am hesitant to agree with saying that America is not "the best". But the fact is that other countries have been taking damages for years and years, and we got one big, big hit. But we were sent a video tape telling us it was going to happen? How can we blame anyone else for what happened on 9/11 but ourselves? We knew there was a chance that someone was going to make a move, and we did nothing about it. It's sad to see that the people we have been fighting against these 6 years might have a small point. We, as Americans, are selfish, and ignorant to the fact that many other European countries do not like us at all. But for some reason, that's okay, because we are America, and nobody else matters. These stories opened my eyes some and made me realize that there is so so much more going on in this world that really doesn't have anything to do with us. We cannot be so self-centered that we ignore other issues that need to be addressed. Like the apartheid, in Africa with Nelson Mandela. How could we, Americans, whose always preach about freedom vote against letting Nelson Mandela, a man searching for freedom for his people out of jail?How can we preach on thing and do another?
I do support Bush's decision to attack Afghanistan after 9/11, I would have done the same thing if I were in his position, but I do believe that if drawn out long enough, this war will turn against America and become something negative in our history, like fighting against nelson Mandela. It is already turning into something not so patriotic. These two stories show our countries arrogance in judging who the bad guy really is. There is no perfect nation and noone should think that they are living in one, including Americans.