padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
Balkan intervention.
debatable. or mixed I guess. for all the "humanitarian" angle a lot of it (propping up Kosovo agianst traditional Russian ally Serbia, for example) clearly had ulterior motives.
Democracy promotion in the former soviet empire (partially successful, but better than nothing)
"democracy promotion" is kind of a laugh. yeah like Central Asia where we (oh, I'm American mate, no need to refer to "they", the barbarians) gladhanded the same dudes who ran tings the USSR so we could build airbases & get access to pipelines & such. or Russia itself, clearly the democratic 90s were great for foreign investors if not really so many actual Russians. even in the places where democracy was "promoted" there's usually a self-serving interest as well. the Ukraine for example - do you think we "promoted democracy" there cos we believe in Freedom & Democracy or cause a pro-Western Europe Ukraine is much preferrable, in terms of U.S. foreign policy, to a pro-Russia one?
They'll do for starters. Their record on human rights has been badly blemished, particularly of late. But it does at least exist as an objective, which is more than can be said for other superpowers, past & present.
oh yeah human rights. this one yes, to an extent. though that's more the product of American free society (where people can stand up & complain about things like human rights) than any specific "foreign policy".
It all boils down to this - the U.S. is an empire, it does what empires do. Which, I mean, whatever, if Americans supported it cause they wanted their team to kick ass that I could understand. It's this illusion of things like "promoting democracy", of noble ideals & all that tosh, that's really galling. Of course as you allude to the alternatives aren't very appealing either.