Originally Posted by
Dmitri
American exceptionalism.
People here have a different attitude than the rest of the world, an optimistic attitude centered around individuality, not dependence on the Government or anyone else. You will never be able to truly convince an American that something is impossible or can not be done, that is an entirely foreign concept here. This nation has defeated a superpower twice in 50 years, once to gain independence, again to maintain it. While suffering a crippling depression we increased our military to 24 times it's former size to square off with the Nazi's and Japanese, not as conquerors, but as liberators.
After that we pumped billions of dollars into Europe and Japan through the marshal plan and various other aid programs to rebuild the devastated nations on both sides of the war, fostering economic powerhouses modeled after the American Government and economic systems. All of this while providing defense for any nation in Europe willing to accept it ( which we still do ), making European wars a thing of the past. We created an international organization with the mission of preserving peace and cooperation between nations all over the world. 24 years after ending the second ( and most likely the last ) world war we put men on the moon, 6 times!
We continue to drive the world's economy as an unrivaled economic power, we move humanity forward with technological advancements at a rate never before seen, we protect entire continents and oceans with our military. And despite having the power and money to do so, we do not conquer the world or even our political and economic enemies. Our military instead sees action is places like Kosovo, Iran, and Korea. Stopping genocide and aggression by other nations. On any given day it would be cheaper and easier for the United States to say "Fuck it, you're on your own!" and withdraw all of our troops from Europe, Japan, Korea, and bring everyone back to their families. But we stick it out, despite being insulted for warmongering we feel that because we have the ability to protect humans across the world, we have the responsibility to.
Every nation has it's flaws, it's short comings, it's mistakes and scandals. But we do not hide from ours or attempt to cover them up. All of our mistakes from the Native Americans to Vietnam and beyond are visible to everyone to criticize and mock. The United States is not the greatest country in the world, no nation can truthfully lay claim to that title. But the United States acts more often in the interest of humanity and freedom and does more to advance peace and prosperity across the world than any nation in history.