: : : This evidence should be enough to convince anyoen that teh US is NOT an evil monolith that always does the selfish and oppressiev thing. Often it does teh right thing, as these examples should show. : : Not, because:
: : 1:Did it stop these murderers out of humanitarian interest?
: : 2:Was it doing so under the rule of law?
: : 3:What was the power basis for its intervention?
: : Look at it this way- British troops ostensibly went into the North of Ireland to save the Catholics, and ended up defending the British state there- sometimes good things happen despite the bad intentions. Even if you could call some things it does good, that doesn't make its rule right.
: You are aguing, if i understand correctly, that these actiosn were not ":good" because they were motivated by pragmatic self interest. But then, you can't call nanything the US does "evil" either, sinec again teh motivation is generally pragmatic self-interest, which is morally neutral.
DDN: But self-interest with complete disregard for others IS evil, isn't it? Its certainly not an attitude I could sit idly by and deem as perfectly ok. I sure as hell wouldn't want to befriend or trust anyone that only ever acted in there own narrow self-serving interests regardless of the consequences for ME, would YOU? A person steeped in this mentality is generally considered disfunctional and in need of psychiatric treatment ("sociopathic" comes to mind). Why should we feel any different toward a nuclear equiped world power that has the same abnormal psychology?
: The operative thing is not the intention, but the quality and the result of the action.
DDN: So you're not concerned about the U.S. having bad or unethical intentions when it intervenes in world affairs?
None.
