I keep reading about concern for the people of Pakistan. What about the U.S.?

It seems to me that the best hope for the people of Pakistan--a country riddled with backward ways of thinking and the resulting backward ways of living--would benefit from being a country like the U.S., still riding on the glory of productivity, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Instead, many of us in the U.S. engage in the pretense that everything can be solved by democratic vote alone. Well, it can't. I'm all in favor of democratic vote, but votes cannot be used to vote away the sovereign right of the individual to be free from all forms of force--government or criminal (and the line is often blurred). I'm not an expert on Pakistan, but it's my guess that a majority of people there would opt for some version of a religious dictatorship. They might quibble over whether this dictatorship should be merely "moderate" or "extreme," but in either case the rights of the individual would be denied, to say nothing for the prospect of capitalism, part of the condition required for a truly free society. The U.S. needs to focus more on the U.S. We still have a lot of freedom and a lot to lose here. We should strengthen our own economy, make all individuals more free--and more self-responsible--than they presently are. We should go in the exact opposite direction that all of the Democratic and most of the Republican candidates for President proclaim we should. The rest of the world will follow, if we do. If we don't, we will continue our slow decline into ultimate collapse, and you can be sure the rest of the world will follow us into that, as well. If you care about the world, you had better care for the U.S. first and foremost.