It's worse than we think.

Here, we are interested in science and accept evolution (life, Big Bang, etc), but it's more about complexity than anything else.
There is also evolution in history, in politics, in our our perception of things.
Democracy, for instance, didn't start in the US.
Evil versus Good is an unacceptable simplification, if we look at what started or what lead to a situation (Saddam wasn't considered evil at a time he was as ruthless towards his people as more recently).
And especially, considering the tens of thousands of Iraqis who died because of a war started for reasons they have nothing to do about.

The world is not black and white; we all live in a greyish world (well, actually brilliantly blue and white) and we all have responsabilities or our ancestors have responsabilities for shaping history in a way or another.

There was a time when the US wasn't afraid of anybody and was generous and respected.
The US is no more the model of the past. So called collectivist countries even fare better than the US in many ways.
We have to accept living in a complex world, with lots of cultures, languages, ideologies (though that's part of the problem), geographical advantages or disadvantages, but we all live on one planet.
The tsunami is a reminder of who and where we are, too.

Raoul