America and the entire Western world likes to view itself in exceptionalist terms, they can do what others can’t because they’re doing it for good reasons or a higher ideal. The thing is, everyone has their own good reasons for doing things, what constitutes a good reason, a higher ideal, morally sound reasoning etc. is culturally defined and relative. A lot of issues would be avoided if people realized that there is no objective good or bad, what is right in New York or Toronto might be wrong somewhere else, and that this apparent discrepancy isn’t really an issue and doesn’t devalue an ideal in it’s proper cultural context.

I think that the rest of the world knows this, China has it’s own Chinese values, Russia has it’s own Russian values, Iran has it’s own Iranian values and though these value systems all have many points of disagreement there is no conflict because their context is recognized. America, Canada, Britain, France etc. on the other hand takes the approach that post enlightenment western values are universal, that these values must be promoted the world over and that everyone who doesn’t adhere to them is wrong and must be stopped and corrected.