Dearest Salam-

You're my number one favorite blog buddy, and I'm grateful for your presence. Not many have your combination of writing skills, personality and courage to write honestly in your situation - indeed no one else at all that I am aware of. You're my eyes and ears on the ground in the hottest city around.

However, one thing that has always bugged me is this permanent quote on the top of your page:

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." -Samuel P Huntington

Not to pick a fight, but you and Samuel P Huntington are flatly wrong. Values and ideas are exactly why The West, aka America rides in the driver's seat, though we continue to argue even amongst ourselves as to exactly what those ideas are and what they mean.

In fact, our "superiority in applying organized violence" ranks as one of the lesser aspects of our prominence. I can appreciate how you might not think so right now. Living in Baghdad at this moment means that you're looking down the barrel of the most fearsome military force in human history.

However, most of America's pre-eminence in the world comes through our economy, not our guns. We invent and make and sell more stuff than anybody else in the world. That is our top prominent thing, and it is absolutely due to the ideas and values that Huntington pooh-poohs. Those values include, for example, the famous Puritan work ethic, which will get back to religion.

Perhaps the most important values and ideas that give America and the West generally our great strength lie in our political traditions. We have an underlying system of free market capitalism, and the idea that you can come up from nothing through hard work and talent to make something of yourself. Also critical to that is the idea of the rule of law, that there are predictable set rules of the game that apply to everyone.

Like any country, there are mixed ideas and values at work, some working against us. We've adopted a welfare state lite, and the trial lawyers have really stretched the rule of law significantly out of shape. There are lots of places we could improve. Still, even watered down and half-corrupted, we've got the best winning combination of ideas around- as evidenced by our RESULTS.

Even our military superiority comes only as an outgrowth of ideas and values. Does our unprecedented military might in applying organized violence come from some physical attributes? Are American men bigger and stronger than regular guys? No, there have to be other reasons. I can think of a couple.