Street scene in a modern city

Submitted for your consideration:  a pleasant street in Syria, 2011.

Then the same street three years later.

Now consider this:  These people had cars, satellite TV, cell phones, excellent restaurants and hotels, shopping--all the pleasantries of modern life.  And yet they still came to the end shown in the lower photo.

Ask yourself what caused the destruction.  Then ask yourself, What is the difference between Syria and the U.S. that would keep us from suffering this same fate? 

I suggest that the difference is razor-thin.