I recently finished Michael Yon's book Moment of 'Truth in Iraq. It is a fantastic book. Michael is a former Green Beret who has spent more time embedded with US combat troops in Iraq than any any journalist in the world. The book offers a lot of insight into the war in Iraq and deals with the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The part of the book which totally impressed me is the part which shows why America is special. On page 143, Michael talks about what happened when the Amercan soldiers began to move into the Iraqi buildings. The buildings began to improve, because that's what Americans do. The American 'gift' that we have (that is so ingrained in us that we take it for granted) is the "can-do-mentality." The belief that problems are made to be solved. The America that says "What can I do to solve this problem?" will be much more successful than the America that says "What can the government do to solve this problem?".
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