[rm_-rf_slash]

Counter-examples abound: the US actively suppressed democracy in Latin America and elsewhere when it didn't suit American business interests, hence Guatemala.

Likewise, a great number of deaths at the hand of Communist leaders were due to utter incompetence and mismanagement, such as in China's Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward.

My rule of thumb is that it's basically a bad thing when somebody dies who shouldn't have (if people were fair and compassionate).

[AnimalMuppet]

> My rule of thumb is that it's basically a bad thing when somebody dies who shouldn't have (if people were fair and compassionate).

OK. Then it's a worse thing when more people die who shouldn't have, right?

[rm_-rf_slash]

Entirely. In the vast histories of famines, for example, there were far more times where food was available and denied to the desperate, than there have been times where there has not been enough food for everybody.

During the food cost crisis that preceded the Arab Spring, I and everyone around me in comfortable America ate quite well. If we as a species cared for every human life, such suffering would have been avoided.

"And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’" -Matthew, 25:40

[Turing_Machine]

Please provide a "counter-example" where the United States murdered 100 million people.

Thanks.

[rm_-rf_slash]

Easy, the mass genocide of Native Americans long before and after the ink had dried on the Constitution.

You're welcome.

[Turing_Machine]

Sorry, not even close.

18 million would be on the high end for the estimated indigenous population of pre-Columbian North America. 90% of those were wiped out by imported diseases before the United States even existed. It would be quite a trick to murder 100 million people based on a starting population of only 1.8 million (not all of whom, or even most of whom, were killed, by any means).

It is not reasonable to blame the United States for things that happened before it existed.

Also, it is pretty much accepted nowadays that killing off indigenous people is a Bad Thing. Unfortunately, the same is not true of communism. There are still plenty of people who think it's a wonderful idea.

[dang]

> Easy [...] You're welcome.

Please don't treat divisive, inflammatory topics as mere ammunition for trivial internet arguments. That's a common pattern, and it makes discussion both uncivil and unsubstantive.