American Greatness In response to a recent article condemning the United States government’s latest attempt to get America involved in a pointless and destructive foreign war, I got mostly hostile responses. I know this because I broke my general rule of not reading the comments section.
One reply, however, got me thinking. “The author’s view,” a reader wrote, “is not one that I share. American foreign policy is a tool to promote American values.” The reader went on to identify a list of nations allegedly lacking these values, particularly “individual liberty.”
But is the United States really a freer country than, say, Russia? I don’t believe the answer to that question is as simple as it may seem. But I do think my critic is mistaken to assume that the “American values” we promote around the world are inherently good. The ideologies we seek to impose on foreign nations through military and diplomatic pressure, and the causes that our tax dollars fund, are often completely at odds with the traditional principles and restrained governance that every American should support….
