Have you ever stopped to think about what the world would be like if the United States of America never existed? What if George Washington, after suffering defeat after defeat during the American Revolution, decided to "cut our losses" and surrender the Continental Army to the British? What if Abraham Lincoln relented and allowed the Union to be dissolved? What if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had allowed Nazi Germany to run ramshod over Europe?

Where would the world be today?

Think the world is a dangerous, violent place today? Well, think of the alternatives.

Throughout our history, the United States of America has championed liberty, justice, and democracy around the world.  Sure, we have had our faults--we certainly are not perfect--but have always striven to right what is wrong.

So let's reflect on our accomplishments for moment.  Let's bask in the glory of what we have achieved.

Before our Founding Fathers hammered out our representative democracy, there were two predominant forms of government in the world--monarchy and dictatorship.  Human rights, which we take for granted today, were nonexistent.  Tyrants ruled with an iron fist.  Kings and queens built themselves elaborate palaces while the common people suffered and starved.

Our successful democracy put an end to that and became the model for the rest of the world.

While we worked to establish our nation, European and Japanese imperialists strove to expand their empires across the globe by force.  We stood tall, never succumbed, and through our Monroe Doctrine blocked imperialists from swallowing the fledgling nations of South America.

When civil war engulfed our nation, Abraham Lincoln weathered the storm and fought so that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

When Germany threatened our allies in Europe during WWI, we stepped in and turned them back, thus guarding the democracies of France and Britain.

When the Nazis again attacked our allies and threatened to conquer the world, our soldiers crossed the Atlantic and landed on the beaches of Normandy.  We fought through the Ardennes forest and liberated Nazi concentration camps.  When the concentration camp victims saw our troops appear on the horizon, they shouted out with joy, "The Americans have come! The Americans have saved us!"

With Europe in tatters, Josef Stalin and his Communist cronies turned on us and decided to absorb the entire defenseless continent into the Soviet empire.  But we took a stand, drew a line in the sand in Germany, and dared him to step foot across.  He backed down.  Then we funded the reconstruction of Germany, Italy, and Japan--our former enemies! Those countries are now bastions of democracy and human rights and war in Europe is unimaginable.

After we stopped Stalin dead in his tracks in Europe, he decided to turn his attention to Asia.  In 1950, he pressured Kim Il Sung, the Communist dictator of North Korea, to invade South Korea.  He thought we would stand by and do nothing.  He was wrong.  Our soldiers again crossed the vast sea, landed on the beaches of Inchon, and fought their way inland until they liberated Seoul, the South Korean capital.  Was that significant? Just compare the free, prosperous nation of South Korea to the starving, oppressed nation of North Korea and you have your answer.

We fought a Cold War with the Soviet Union and didn't blink.  By standing up to the Communists and defending our friends throughout the world, we bankrupted the Reds and tore down the Iron Curtain.  Now Eastern Europe, which had been dominated by Soviet tyrants for almost half a century, was at last free, too.

This is our legacy.  We have delivered democracy to the world, ushered in an age of peace in Europe, made kings and queens obsolete, saved and freed victims of depraved tyrants, rebuilt nations ravaged by war, introduced the notion of inalienable human rights, provided trillions of dollars of humanitarian aid, rooted out terrorists worldwide, sacked barbaric governments that condoned the brutalization of women...the list goes on and on.

It is who we are.  It is our calling.

We are the Champions of Civilization.