"discount any time we have undeniably helped other countries"
Feel free to point some out and we can discuss that, but our atrocities in the lands south of our borders are very hard to defend. Of course we could actually stop doing that and truly effect change for the better. I'm not counting on it.
Notably you don't seem able to speak to the statement. We've treated large swathes of the planet as extraction zones. South and Central America certainly provide a wealth of examples. I f 14 families own everything arable they can grow cash crops for the US markets while the millions whom the king gave nothing to can starve... Of course those millions might object, or get politically active, or organize. Enter Fort Benning's "School of the Americas". Enter death squads... Enter terror... Enter dystopia... and refugees.
The 9,000 of our Filipino "allies" whom we murdered on the first day of their subjugation might provide another lesson, if learning were anything that concerned you. Perhaps our comrade in arms Ho Chi Min, who fought the Japanese with us, only to have us hand his country over to Charles De Gaul, can provide a lesson on all the good things we've done for others.
Perhaps we could discuss the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Who the fuck are we kidding here? You don't want to hear about morality. You're a monster. Greedy, self important and ultimately sad... but a monster nonetheless.
Whatever... Consider the words of Robert Burns
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
