While I agree that the tone of parent is... unhelpfully agitated and aggressive. The broad strokes critique of US foreign (and domestic) policy is on point.
The US began as a corporate colonial project - Virginia Company, London Company, Plymouth Company, Massachusetts Bay Company etc. It proceeded to expand through genocide of indigenous populations and wars of conquest - Cherokee–American Wars, Mexican American War, Spanish American War, Quasi-War with France and on and on.
From the first the US (contrary to domestic myth) was colonial, expansionist and interventionist. US involvement in theatres around the world has initiated, prolonged and expanded conflicts - from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US has toppled literally dozens of democratically elected governments and helped elect numerous authoritarian dictators. The list of countries where the US has engaged in 'regime change' is so long it could fill up this comments character limit but to cite a few Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Philippines, Korea, Venezuela, Libya, Palestine, Syria etc. America has funded (and continues to fund) genocides, death squads, torture sites (its own as well as those of its allies). The US has replaced democratic leaders in countries as friendly as Australia as recently as 1975.
At the risk of turning this comment into a letter to the editor of Foreign Policy - the US is not remotely a 'golden boy of good'. On balance Pax Americana has kept Europe at peace, but at the cost of keeping Africa, Latin and Central America, and parts of South East Asia impoverished and constantly at war.
Is it China? Is it Russia? No. Would they make worse imperial powers? Almost certainly. It's a unique kind of tyranny, one that manages to convince it's own elites against all historic evidence it's a 'force for good'.
Not to mention, if you compare the US, its citizen's intentions, and its government's intentions, and yes the DnD's intentions to all but a tiny handful of countries, the US is a golden boy of good.
Note the conditionals. "intentions" and "compared to all but a tiny handful of countries".
Also note the context where I was careful to say "Compare today's US".
In these contexts, the history of the US is meaningless, and only today counts. And I was referencing "colonial powers", which are historical, to us actions today.
I know all the US has done. I also know all the British Empire did. I also know how Russia, China, Iran, and various tiny dictatorships around the world act.
Yes, the US is very much a "golden boy of good" in reference to, and comparison to these things.
Anything and anyone can be made a monster taken out of context.
Sincere question: Is the second half of your assertion that U.S. government is directing/coordinating the conduct of the Israeli military or that their lack of action makes them makes them equally culpable/complicit in said actions?
Ah, the backwards world view, where people defending themselves from relentless aggressors, including ones that call for an end to their existence, are somehow wrong to end those endless attacks.
Israel would be nuts to leave even a wisp of Hamas in power in Palestine, and yes attacking innocent ships gets a defensive response.
Next up! Man attacked by machete wielding lunatic punches him in defense, how dare he!
I initially read your comment with the opposite meaning to what you intended, since it's so well known that Israel has been relentlessly attacking and settling Palestine for over 70 years.
You are forgetting the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine empire, the Roman Empire, the Ptolemaic Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the British Empire, the Canaanite Empire, and all the others I have neglected to mention.
That both are just random dates? That borders shifted continuously for thousands and thousands of years, and were called different things?
How do you arbitrarily pick a point in time, and say "Oh, this is the point land was stolen!". It's absurd. The same thing is true in every single country on the planet. There are people there, that took the land from other people!
I have some Scottish blood. The English took my land, 500 years ago. My ancestors were kicked to the curb, or killed in battle. Do I blame them? Or is that OK? What about the fact that the current English took land from the Romans? And endless waves of invaders between? Or war after war fought? Or the Romans from people before both?
Where does it end?
It's the same in every country on the planet!
Does all this mean that if Israel stands with static borders for .. what, 100 years, then no one can complain, ever, even once? Or is it 200 years? How long? What's the official time when the latest guy is the bad guy, but everyone else is pure and perfect?
The problem here is we're both unsure, but you're pointing at the UN. I'm throwing my hands up and saying, that no country on the planet can stand if the metric is "They took my land".
The time is generally 'reset' after a fairly long period of peace, but that doesn't prevent people declaring their own independence. You'll note Scotland had a referendum on this.
How long must Putin occupy parts of Eastern Ukraine until it's 'his'?
Throwing your hands up is just surrendering to the strongest power.
The US began as a corporate colonial project - Virginia Company, London Company, Plymouth Company, Massachusetts Bay Company etc. It proceeded to expand through genocide of indigenous populations and wars of conquest - Cherokee–American Wars, Mexican American War, Spanish American War, Quasi-War with France and on and on.
From the first the US (contrary to domestic myth) was colonial, expansionist and interventionist. US involvement in theatres around the world has initiated, prolonged and expanded conflicts - from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US has toppled literally dozens of democratically elected governments and helped elect numerous authoritarian dictators. The list of countries where the US has engaged in 'regime change' is so long it could fill up this comments character limit but to cite a few Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Philippines, Korea, Venezuela, Libya, Palestine, Syria etc. America has funded (and continues to fund) genocides, death squads, torture sites (its own as well as those of its allies). The US has replaced democratic leaders in countries as friendly as Australia as recently as 1975.
At the risk of turning this comment into a letter to the editor of Foreign Policy - the US is not remotely a 'golden boy of good'. On balance Pax Americana has kept Europe at peace, but at the cost of keeping Africa, Latin and Central America, and parts of South East Asia impoverished and constantly at war.
Is it China? Is it Russia? No. Would they make worse imperial powers? Almost certainly. It's a unique kind of tyranny, one that manages to convince it's own elites against all historic evidence it's a 'force for good'.