The strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities our families our faiths. That is the bedrock of what makes America America. In our best days we can feel the vibrancy of America's communities large and small.
The west has a great deal to answer for in the Middle East from Britain's belated empire-building after the First World War to the US and British policy that condemns modern Iraq to the material and social squalor of a half-century ago.