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In reply to the discussion: Jewish Democrats clash with Ilhan Omar after comments on U.S. and Israel [View all]Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)We should be self-critical of ourselves and call out the mistakes and sometimes the purposeful harm we cause in addition to talk about how awesome we are and the good we do. We should have that balance. I don't view her comments as saying the US is the same as the Taliban or Hamas, but rather simply stating that the US has also done things that are bad and that need to be acknowledged so that we can avoid doing it in the future. She can affect US and to some extent Israeli actions, but has limited power over what Hamas or the Taliban do.
Really though, the US probably causes more harm because of the scale of US actions. The US isn't tied to just a single region, but rather the US is doing something in all parts of the world. I think the US does a lot of good on a scale that no other nation can do too (something often ignored by left-of-center folks) Also, if we were to scale the Taliban up to the US level of power, then I'm certain that is not a world I would want to live in.
The black and white thinking makes any sort of progress difficult. We should acknowledge our flaws in addition to those of groups like the Taliban. I think that also gives more credibility when calling out the atrocities of others. Which is something I think we'll need to have to do a lot in the coming decades as China spreads it wings even further.
*yeah, I know. I'm all over the place here.