The alternative here would be to believe that America is like any other country; that when a country attacks another without being attacked it is almost always immoral; and that therefore, because America has fought a lot of wars in which we weren't attacked, we've fought a lot of immoral wars.Read the full post - he's responding to some particularly stupid reasoning by someone named George Packer.
It's truly astonishing to me how offended most Americans get at the idea that their nation is only incrementally better than most major powers have been throughout history, if at all. No, for many Americans (and I imagine most citizens of major powers at the height/precipice of their power) it's impossible to believe that the United States has been anything other than a beacon of liberty and holiness from which no evil was ever spawned.
Suggest to them that America behaves precisely as ALL major powers have through history, and they start foaming at the mouth and clutching their rosaries/crucifixes.
To further suggest that the drive for national power itself might be immoral is obviously a sign of mental illness. Lobotomies will be performed.
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