CBN.com �?WASHINGTON, D.C. �?America is "the land of the free and home of the brave," and each year immigrants are drawn from all over the world to the United States borders.

But America is under attack like never before, and not just by terrorists. Critics on both the left and the right say "America is evil" and that the nation has abandoned its moral compass.

In his new book, What's So Great About America, Dinesh D'Souza takes on these critics. An Indian immigrant who came to the U.S. as a college student, D'Souza says America has proven itself to be a great nation because of its unique freedom.

"The script of my life would have been dictated from the outside. By coming to America by contrast, I am the architect of my own destiny and major decisions like who to love, who to marry, what to become, what to believe, these are decisions that in America we make for ourselves," he said.

D'Souza acknowledges America is not perfect, but insists it is still the best nation in the world.

For example, he says America is not unique in having slavery, but in abolishing it. And D'Souza says the reason for the country's greatness is embedded in its founding ideals, and those ideals which shape the nation's freedom and identity are found in the very document that made America a separate nation, the Declaration of Independence.

By signing this document on that hot day in July 1776, the Founding Fathers declared that America would be a land that recognizes "all men are created equal" and where the rights of the people are "endowed by their Creator," not granted by the whim of some state or government.

Later, America's matchless Constitution proclaimed to the world that "We the People," not kings or dictators, would decide the course of the nation. And its guaranteed liberties allowed each American to be responsible, under God, for his own family, property and future.

"The whole notion of equality, the idea that each of us has a God-given right to pursue liberty, life, and happiness, those are amazing concepts, especially in the time in which people thought of actually instituting them," America’s Second Lady Lynne Cheney told CBN News.

And Cheney says it is important to know the principles that gave us the life we cherish. She wrote her new book, America: A Patriotic Primer, to help pass on those ideals to America's children.

"We are where we are because of many brave men and women, who acted not in their own interest, but in the interest of these larger ideas and ideals," she said. "If they hadn't done that, you know, we wouldn't be the free society we are right now."

And these freedoms allow America, unlike other countries, to offer the common person a chance at success once reserved only for the rich and powerful.

"The plumber takes his family on vacation to the Caribbean or even to Europe. It's a remarkable standard of living and degree of freedom that no other society has been able to provide," D’Souza said.

But there is concern that many Americans, especially the younger ones, do not have a handle on their country's history or how unique their freedoms are. One study found that on a high school level American history test, 80 percent of college seniors scored grades as low as "D" or "F."

"This was not just your average universities, but the really elite schools, the seniors, and a majority of them couldn't identify the words of the Gettysburg Address. A plurality of them thought Ulysses S. Grant was a general in the Revolutionary War," Cheney said.

And if this ignorance is not frightening enough, a recent survey of the attitudes and opinions of college students toward the war on terror could cause concern about the future of the war effort. Americans for Victory Over Terrorism reported, of those surveyed:

• a full 37 percent said they would be likely to dodge the military draft if it were it reinstated
• only 35 percent said they would being willing to serve and fight anywhere in the world
• 25 percent said they believed that American values are superior to the values of other nations
• and 79 percent of students do not believe Western culture is superior to Arab culture

D'Souza says American values are better because they allow freedom of choice. And it is that freedom that our enemies hate. Islamic critics say their societies are morally superior since they are based on virtue, because freedom is often used badly. But D'Souza says freedom is necessary to obtain virtue.

"If a woman in Iran, for example, is required to wear a veil, in a sense you can say that she is not modest because she is being forced. It is only when you choose freely that you can choose the good. So to me the moral superiority of the free society is not just that we are more prosperous or pluralistic but that we offer people the freedom which is the necessary prerequisite to choosing the good," D’Souza said.

And that good was tested on September 11^th when terrorists attacked the U.S. on its own soil.

In his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Bush said, "Our enemies believed America was weak and materialistic, that we would splinter in fear and selfishness. They were as wrong as they are evil."

September 11^th seemed to renew America's resolve to resist that evil as people from all walks of life came together in a spirit of unity and compassion.

D’Souza said, "The free society has shown that when it's up against the wall, when it's meeting an outside threat, whether it was the attack on Pearl Harbor, or the attack on the World Trade Center, Americans rally and a kind of deep surge of national unity occurs."

And Americans are glad to speak up about that unity. "I think there's an increase in love for America but also love for others. So I've seen an increase in patriotism but also a decrease in sort of a self-serving philosophy," one woman told CBN News.

"I'm more aware of how fragile life is, and how things can change in a minute. I'm more thankful for the people around me and the things that I have," one man said.

"It's not an evil country, we're a blessed country. We take a lot for granted and since September 11^th, I think people are realizing that," said a woman named Debbie.

Compassion for other human beings, even in war, D'Souza says, reflects the fundamental goodness of American values.

"What other country in the world would have defeated Japan and Germany in World War II and rebuilt those countries? What country in the world goes to fight with another country, in this case Afghanistan, and in the middle of the fight is distributing food and rations to avert starvation among the civilians on the other side. No empire in all of human history has ever done this," D’Souza said.

Now that the U.S. is at war, Vice President and Mrs. Cheney are challenging young people to learn more about America's unique background so they will understand why the nation is worth defending.

"We didn't get to be free because it was inevitable. Liberty is a very precious and fragile thing that we need to be thoughtful about and we need to defend," Mrs. Cheney said.

President Bush told the nation, "Our enemies sent other people's children on missions of suicide and murder. They embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed. We stand for a different choice made long ago on the day of our founding. We affirm it again today. We choose freedom and the dignity of every life."