Stephan:   We tell ourselves the United States is the "Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free." No question about the bravery. Over a million young men and women answered the call that George Bush and Dick Cheney put out. They bravely went forth to fight, and are still fighting the insane wars that have dominated American foreign policy for over a decade. The fact that these wars were the manifested stupidity resulting from a lethal mix of hubris, greed, and grotesque ignorance about the nature of geopolitics in the Islamic world in no way denigrates their bravery. Their lives were thrown away by their leaders in what I believe will be seen as one of the great failures of foreign policy in American history. But what about Land of the Free? I am sorry to tell you but that's just a lie we tell ourselves. We are no longer even in the top tier of freedom, as this report from an British research institute, Legatum Institute Foundation, spells out. The full report is available here, alternatively, the full set of data and tables is available at www.prosperity.com.