• moakley@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    If it’s just a numbers game, then the US has saved orders of magnitude more people than they’ve killed. Hell, even if you just look at the Bush administration, PEPFAR alone saved more than 26 million people, while the Iraq war killed one million at most.

    I mean if this is only about outcome and not about intent, the US has historically provided about 1/3 of the Earth’s foreign aid. You could discount that by saying that the US, being so wealthy, was more capable of doing that. But that’s not the outcome-oriented viewpoint that we’re taking.

    We could look at the moral philosophy of the leaders and political systems at play here, but that would be “ignoring the reality”, so let’s just get out the sparklers and don our American flag shorts, because your by-the-numbers approach has a clear winner! USA! USA! USA!

    • Krono@lemmy.today
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      2 hours ago

      Give 1 child a vaccine.

      Shoot 1 child in the head.

      Under your logic, these two are equal, and cancel each other out.

      US imperialism is a disease, please get well soon.

      • moakley@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        Not my logic. You’re the one who wanted to simplify it to body counts. Is adding good deeds also too much nuance for you? All morality is judged on bad deeds alone? Wow that’s even more simplistic.