Mark you, when you think about it, the US has never had it particularly easy. Like the settlers who, having got fed up with the East with its rain, fog, cold in the winter, not to mention unfriendly tribes of Indians, undecipherable Brooklyn accents and power-shouldered NooYarkers, set off for the West in their waggons. After many long weeks they made it to Kansas, took one look and kept going. Finally one day they decided to stop for the night as California was supposed to be just over the horizon. Imagine their horror when dawn broke the next day and there was Pike's Peak! "Thank you so bŁoody much, O Lord", they cried - "that's all we needed!". It was then a toss-up - stay and get frozen in Colorado where the weather was chilly but at least there was Coors, or hack it over the Rockies to California where there was surfing to be done and babes on the beach to ogle, 'twas said. No contest really - although the settlers with the particularly gaily painted waggons decided to give San Francisco a go instead and took to wearing leather underpants.....
Meanwhile the East got bigger and richer and was the welcoming sight for many a repressed refugee escaping from persecution or the threat of having to appear in a movie with Kate Winslet; until one fine day out of the clear blue September sky some mad ba$tards used the freedom of US air travel to murder thousands of innocent people. So don't expect the peace-loving Americans who suffered this outrage to show much mercy to the cowards hiding in their Afghanistani caves.....