The American Enterprise reprints this 2002 article from Dinesh D’Souza, a Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of What’s So Great About America:

It is not uncommon in the United States for two brothers who come from the same gene pool and were raised in similar circumstances to do quite different things: The eldest becomes a gas station attendant, the younger moves up to be vice president at Oracle; the eldest marries his high-school sweetheart and raises four kids; the youngest refuses to settle down; one is the Methodist that he was raised to be, the other becomes a Christian Scientist. What to be, where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, what religion to practice—these are all decisions that Americans make for themselves.

In America your destiny is not prescribed; it is constructed. Your life is like a blank sheet of paper and you are the artist. This notion of being the architect of your own destiny is the incredibly powerful idea that is behind the worldwide appeal of America. Young people especially find the prospect of authoring their own lives irresistible.

Make sure you read the whole thing — unless you don’t like hearing positive stories about the United States. In which case, I would suggest the al Qaeda Times of New York.

Much has been written recently bemoaning how the United States is negatively preceived by the rest of the world. Mike at Cold Fury and  Christopher Hitchens at the Examiner ask and answer: Why do they hate us? Who gives a damn?

However, I think that the article by D’Souza is closer to the truth than what Hitchens wrote about: which is that most of the world doesn’t hate us (despite what you read or hear from the MSM) — the fact is that most of the countries of the world envy us, enough so that their citizens will go to unspeakable lengths and face unimaginable dangers to reach our borders.