Hey Dr A,
. . . no need to humble ourselves before shits like Osama Bin Laden.
I understand your emotional response. However, your sentiment SEEMS to wave away America's responsibility to how al-queda became a world terrorist organization. To repeat history once again, the US gave EXTENSIVE training and military aid to the extremely violent fanatical group Mujahideen to supposedly oust the Soviet empire from Afghanistan. From this group spawned Osama Bin Laden and the eventual blowback of 9/11. Thus, American's SHOULD be ashamed that they nourished an extremely violent terrorist group that not only caused 9/11, but also repeated atrocities in Afghanistan.
Let me attempt to parallel this point with this example:
If a parent trains a child from birth to become a fanatical/radical murdering sociopath, should not the parents ultimately experience guilt when this child does murder? Should the parent be "humbled" for its failed parenting? I would think a profound sense of remorse toward the child AND society for not teaching/instilling human values in the child SHOULD be present. (That is, UNLESS you are from a truly wacked family: I remember the quote from Jeffrey Dalmer's father: "they [the media] are trying to make my son into some kind of a monster". Wow, how's that for denial?)
Thus, do you think your sentiment above is also exhibiting a similar form of denial in distancing America's responsibility to its "child" and society? Or am I wacked?
(I feel obliged to bring this up because everytime we omit America's RESPONSIBILITY to Bin Laden's victims, Saddam Hussien's victims, Pol Pot's victims, Baby Doc Duvalier's victims, Benjamin Netanyahu's victims, Suharto's victims, Pinochet's victims, Noriega's victims, etc, etc, etc., we don't learn lessons that need to change American foreign policy in the future.)