“America makes available the good life…and the life that is
good.”

So says former Reagan administration domestic policy analyst
Dinesh D’Souza, who spoke Tuesday night in the St. Louis Room of
the Busch Student Center as part of the Great Issues Committee’s
Democracy in Action Speaker Series. The title of D’Souza’s speech,
“What’s So Great about America,” may appear to many, a question of
rhetorical debate. For D’Souza, it is certainly declaratory.

Ranging from international affairs to the country’s domestic
paradigm, D’Souza outlined what he sees as America’s greatness,
while acknowledging its fallacies as well as its critics.

He began with the issue most modern pundits tackle first: Iraq.
D’Souza defended the actions of the Bush administration as part of
a war that goes beyond a war on terrorism, which is, in his view,
an extension of the radical Islam the United States is truly
battling.

“Islamic fundamentalism is replacing Soviet Communism as the
great threat to America,” said D’Souza. “If the war against
terrorism is defined simply as against those who perpetrated Sept.
11, most of our enemies are dead.”

D’Souza explained that, instead, terrorism is a weapon of choice
among a particular species of Islamic radicals and the nations that
harbor them. To attack Iraq was to strike at the terror which most
imminently threatened the United States. And while the
justification of the current war may have been focused on weapons
of mass destruction, the broader goal of the United States is
“trying to see if the ‘alien seed’ of democracy can take root in a
part of the world that has never known it.”

“The problem with terrorism is within the disfunctionality of
[their] regimes,” explained D’Souza. “Democracy adds stability
and… freedom, historically, came by force,” he added, citing
World War II, the Civil War and the American Revolution.

Moving into the broader topic of his speech, D’Souza began to
outline what, in fact, makes America so great; and did so by
responding to its detractors.

Presented by D’Souza, the critics of America can be broken down
into two disciplines: those who oppose its foreign policy, and
those who oppose its culture. As he put it, those in opposition to
the foreign policy are “not objecting to what America is–but about
what America does.”

These critics approach American foreign policy as an objective
of protecting its best interests. This, D’Souza admits, is true, to
an extent. What America must then ask is, “By protecting your own
interests, are you making the world better or making the world
worse?”

Here exists the fallacy of American policy, what D’Souza called,
the “fallacy of the lesser evil.”

While America may have supported various dictatorships or despot
governments throughout its history, D’Souza argues the real
self-examination must be in regards to the alternative of offering
such support and if the better choice was made.

For D’Souza, the decisions made in most foreign policy can be
understood by “distinguishing between the role of the statesman and
the scholar,” which involves the nature of current knowledge versus
the power of hindsight.

“The goal of the statesman is to make the world a better place,”
said D’Souza. Referring to Saddam Hussein, he added, “We have him;
I’m sure he’s willing; but no one is calling for [his]
return…thus, the world must be better off without him.”

Domestically, the critics of America look at a country that
provides what appeals to the low qualities of human nature.

“America is the land of plenty,” said D’Souza. “Why do
immigrants come here? Because they want to get rich. But to some
extent this attributes the appeal of America to greed…which is
why many critics like it.”

The social egalitarianism of America is, though, that it
“provides a good life for the ordinary guy.”

This is achieved because we, as a nation, D’Souza explained,
have the liberty to choose what to make of life. And, at a young
stage in life, given the opportunity, most all of humanity would
choose this liberty.

“In Europe, more emphasis is placed on security than
opportunity,” said D’Souza. “In America, people construct their
destiny,” leading “the self-directed life.”

After concluding the speech, which lasted approximately an hour,
D’Souza went on to answer various questions from the crowd that
ranged from current affairs regarding American foreign policy, to
issues of domestic concern.

Currently, D’Souza serves at the Hoover Institute, Stanford
University’s conservative think tank, as a Robert and Karen
Rishwain Fellow. An immigrant from Bombay, India, he graduated from
Dartmouth University in 1983 with a degree in English literature.
His recent publications include “What’s So Great About America” and
“Letters to a Young Conservative.”