“Ours is a better world because of America. The world is safer because of the American soldier. The world is wealthier because of American enterprise. The world is healthier because of American technology. No nation is perfect, but imagine the world without America.”

Coming from an American citizen, propositions like these would hardly be news. But it is not Americans who have drafted this “Global Declaration Against Anti-Americanism,” the online petition that is the centerpiece of a new Web site, “America in the World”. It is, rather, the work of three Britons, Tim Montgomerie, Peter Cuthbertson, and Stephan Shakespeare. Their goal, they write, is “to increase understanding of America, to debunk some of the leading myths about the United States, and to make a positive case for a continuing leading role for America in the world.”

And not a moment too soon. No American who follows the British press can fail to be shocked by its routine anti-Americanism. Just this weekend, the Observer newspaper published a notice of a new book by Noam Chomsky, regretting that “while in Britain and Europe what he says isn’t all that controversial, in America … his voice, like so many other important ones, has been pigeonholed.” When Mr. Chomsky becomes the voice of reason in British debates about America, a corrective like America in the World is direly needed.

Americaintheworld.com makes some basic philosophical arguments that are not heard often enough across the Atlantic: that “America’s economy drives global entrepreneurship and prosperity,” that “American military spending supports a string of regional alliances that provide security and keep the peace,” and that “no country has done more, overall, to promote democracy and human rights around the world than the United States.”

It is refreshing to hear these sentiments from our British friends, and heartening to note that the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, David Cameron, will be the guest of honor at America in the World’s official launch in London in October. The site announces that it receives no funding from American government or corporate sources, but no doubt it will gain the thanks of millions of American citizens.