christian principles are what made America the greatest nation on Earth
I thought that was WWII laying waste to all the other great nations, leaving the US, the late comer to the war with unprecedented geographical security, with half the world's wealth by 1945.
Concerning limiting, as you do, US imperialism to only Monroe Doctrine sphere of influence, how do you categorize US foreign policies since '47 and the Truman Doctrine, as it mopped up the remains of the British Empire? And during the Cold War? The Reagan Doctrine? After '89? The Bush Doctrine? US presence in the Middle-East?
Yes, the US has really been a light in the darkness. Let me just mention a few highlights in its illustrious history:
US invasion and colonization of the Philippines. Invasions in Latin America, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Haiti, Panama, Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Bolivia, Venezuela, etc. '1000 plane formations' carpet fire bombing of major Japanese and German cities during WWII burning to death hundreds of thousands of civilians (mainly targeting worker residence areas to maximize killing).
Nuclear attacks on an already destroyed Japan incinerating hundreds of thousands more and having children born with defects to this day. The war in Vietnam, killing millions, mainly civilians. Reagan's wars in South America, killing untold numbers and impoverishing the region to this day. Installing and supporting some of the most vicious dictatorships world wide, the Iranian Shah, the Syrian and Saudi regimes, Saddam Hussein, the Khmer Rouge (among the worst human rights records of the 20th century). Support of the Indonesian invasion and ethnic cleansing of East Timor, killing hundreds of thousands. Clinton's bombing of a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory, killings tens of thousands. Obama's drone terror campaign. Supporting Saddam with chemical weapons to go to war with Iran. Supporting the Contras, the Taleban, Al-Qaeda. Supporting apartheid South Africa. Being the sole enabler of Israel to break international law. Torture, CIA black sites, secret renditions, assassinations, global surveillance program. Refusing to follow the Geneve Convention, refusing to adhere to the International Criminal Court, refusing to adhere to the UN Security Council. Military bases all over the world. The Gulf war and the Highway of Death. The Iraq War costing up to a million Iraqis their lives and destroying the lives of many times that number, now and for generations to come, giving birth to ISIS (led by former Iraqi intelligence officers). Supplying weapons to much of the world, allowing Pakistan and Israel to get nuclear weapons.
Etc. etc. I can go on but I think I made my point.
And yes, nation states always try to sell their power politics as altruism or try to argue for the flawed logic of motive consequentialism, US isn't the first nor the last, in fact everyone does it, though few match the Anglo-American hypocrisy of the Victorian British and post-WWII USA. International affairs follow jungle law, not ethics. America is not the worst offender but neither can it claim historical exceptionalism by a long shot.
To sum it up, in the words of U.S Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, perhaps the single most active military officer in the Banana Wars, who saw action in Honduras in 1903, served in Nicaragua enforcing American policy from 1909–1912, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his role in Veracruz in 1914, and a second Medal of Honor for bravery while 'crushing the Caco resistance' in Haiti in 1915.
Butler wrote in his famous book
War Is a Racket:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
