Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by 794CD01 3569 days ago
In diplomacy and international relations, the US has killed countless civilians, used nuclear weapons, launched unjustified invasions of other countries, deposed democratically elected foreign leaders for opposing American interests, and to this day spies on everyone we possibly can. Maybe you're the one who should do some more reading. Or at least watch a movie.

If you think the US has behaved better than other countries, that's reasonable. But that's not the same as behaving well. And a far cry from behaving well enough to be entrusted with "supreme military power".

1 comments

In diplomacy and international relations, the US has killed countless civilians

The United States has also conducted at least 4 wars since the end of World War II; should America be condemned for not having smart bombs in the Korean war?

, used nuclear weapons

...to end World War II and save countless lives, US and Japanese, by avoiding an invasion of Japan. Just the fact that the US was able to end the horrible incendiary bombing of Japanese cities and force Japan's truculent leaders into immediate surrender argues that the use of nuclear weapons in World War II saved far more lives than it cost.

But historical revisionism wins out against lost memories of the worst war ever fought and only barely won.

, launched unjustified invasions of other countries, deposed democratically elected foreign leaders for opposing American interests

The United States is tremendously powerful, and yet generally acts with restraint. And would the world have been better off if more countries had allied themselves with the Soviet Union?

, and to this day spies on everyone we possibly can.

If American power and influence has created a world so stable and peaceful that there are Polly-Annas who believe that espionage isn't universal and endemic among all nations, then that is a very good thing in my opinion.

But that's not the same as behaving well. And a far cry from behaving well enough to be entrusted with "supreme military power".

Nature and international relations abhors a vacuum; no one 'entrusted' the United States to the role they now occupy. Would you be happier if China filled this vacuum?