Is the U.S. in a position to lecture the rest of the world about moral behavior - Research Paper Example

5. The U.S., being the most influential country in the world, has the unique ability to persuade other nations to reconsider immoral behaviors. Con: No the U.S. not in a position to lecture the rest of the world about moral behavior because… 1. The U.S. has a long history of discrimination against non-whites, a circumstance still evident today. 2. The U.S. sends its military to fight political wars that cause hundreds of thousand of deaths worldwide. 3. The U.S. rarely acts to prevent or intervene in genocides such as Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia and now Syria. 4. Americans weigh more, per capita, than the citizens of any other nation while thousands worldwide die of starvation every day. 5. Many countries and all of Europe think the U.S. stance on capital punishment is immoral and transfers that sentiment to its government and people.

President Ronald Reagan is often quoted referring to America as a “shining city on a hill.” It is the world’s most prosperous nation with the greatest military in history founded on the democratic principles of freedom and justice for all. Millions of immigrants have poured into the country with promise of a life free from the shackles of oppressors in their home countries. America is the “melting pot” of the world, a grand experiment that has been the foremost example for many governments and societies that also wanted to recreate the “American Dream” for themselves.

What better nation to teach the rest of the world about moral behavior? Some, in fact many millions may answer nearly any country besides America due to its own human rights and foreign interventions record. American’s are the most prosperous people in the world and are also the most charitable, a measure of their collective morality. The American people give more to charity both on a per capita basis and as a percentage of GNP (gross national product) than any other society in the world. Its richest citizens donate the most by dollar amount and its poorest citizens give the biggest share of their income.

(Eaves, 2008). America is also well-known for giving generously and quickly to help people of other country’s in the aftermath of disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti, the nuclear meltdown in Japan and the tsunami in Southeast Asia just to name three of many. Unfortunately for millions more in other nations, America is also known to ignore instances of genocide. The world remembers how U.S. bomber planes targeted arms factories next to Auschwitz but not the concentration camp’s crematoria or gas chambers nor did the U.S. intervene during the murderous rampages of Cambodia during the 1970’s or Rwanda during the 1990’s.

The intervention in the Balkans “ethnic cleansing” horror was about a year late while the U.S. waited for a consensus from other nations before acting. Just last year Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commended Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar Assad calling him a “reformer.” (Medoff, Thane Rosenbaum, 2012) The U.S. has condemned but not acted upon the oppression of women around the world. Women are treated worse than slaves in several countries. America, however, is a moral example for the world with regards to women’s rights.

Women aged 40 and younger have always enjoyed reproductive rights and equality, more or less, in the workplace. (Hossain, 2012). America does not have the high moral ground when it comes to minority suppression though. From the