re: When are we, as Americans, going to feel shame over the millions killed in our name?

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But at some point we have to recognize that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

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Started way before then bruh

I’m not arguing with you, but it is amazing the extent to which the left and right in this country have switched sides. Free speech, foreign interventions and big business are all issues they have traded positions on.

At least they still agree on increasing spending and not taxing the middle class. We might be doomed.

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it is amazing the extent to which the left and right in this country have switched sides. Free speech, foreign interventions and big business are all issues they have traded positions on.

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Actually they haven't traded sides on any of those things.

What has happened is that the same populism that has long infected the left has now infected the right, so there are no foundational principles to follow.

Just like David The Gnome pointed out upthread.

So the left is all for free speech when it involves grooming little kids to be LGBTQ+-ĩ? or expressing blatant anti-Semitism, but when it means pointing out that black people factually commit more crimes in America than any other group, that's hate speech.

The right is all for telling Native Americans to 'eff off when they whine about losing control of this land, but otherwise wants to acxt like Jimmy Carter with current foreign policy...unless Trump is the one rattling the saber, of course. Then they ignore it.

In other words, rampant hypocrisy due to having no principles to guide policy is what has happened. Not flip flopping.

Now this, this is how you get put on a watch list.

You can look at the glass of water and say it's half empty. I'm going to look at the glass of water and say it's half full!

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First principles. A secure border. Fiscal responsibility. A respect for the Bill of Rights. Law and Order on our streets. Downsizing and reforming our corrupt institutions.

Our leadership is sick. Our power elite is insane. We have to stop enabling their insanity, or else, put them out of their misery.

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I agree with most of your OP-- especially the conclusion quoted above.

I might quibble about the rejection of patriotism you cite earlier. To be clear, I agree patriotism for many has become a bit mindless and blind, leaving some patriots vulnerable to becoming a mere tool to be exploited by political interests. Add critical thinking and education for citizens to your list of first principles... Current enemies of the US have worked hard over the past few decades to degrade critical thinking and understanding of civics, etc. in the population. Patiotism needs to be refined is what I'm saying-- not rejected-- to help American learn to actively become good citizens vs just empty-headed flag waivers.

And while WWII is an interesting inflection point from which the US emerged as THE world superpower (which has been appopriated by globalist interests), the abuse of projected American military power in the service of corporate interests extends further back-- probably going hand in hand with the growth of the US as an industrial power.

When I went through bootcamp some time ago, Marines were made to memorize the exploits of certain Marines like Smedley Butler, who served from 1898 - 1931. It is interesting to know now that when Butler retired from the Corps, he became well known for speaking out about how the military was being used to benefit Wall St, etc. War, as he put it, is a racket and war profiteering should be outlawed.

Smedley Butler - wikipedia

And the 1935 book, War Is a Racket, that he wrote in 1935. The book was an expansion of the material he used in an anti-war profiteering speech he previously gave:
War Is a Racket - wikipedia

A relevant excerpt quoted in wiki:

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I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

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He makes some interesting suggestions as well:

1) Make war not profitable... I welcome someone else to tackle how this might work.

2) Let those who do the fighting vote on if the cause is worthy.

3) Limit war to self defense.

I believe he also wanted to do away with a privileged class who profited on sending other families' sons to their death and profited on it.

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It’s amazing the vast difference of opinion between the Native American thread and this one and damned near every other. In that thread the natives had it coming because "they were savages that brutally enslaved each other" and "they weren’t strong enough so it was inevitable they be conquered, freedom = strength " and such. But constantly the exact same "America First" crowd whines about muh innocent lives lost in our name.

Which is it?

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Good point.

The absence of God is hell.

We've always had evil tyrants in the past. The only difference today between the tyrants of the past and those of today - some have this thing called nukes.

That said, Evil and Good cannot coexist. Evil will always move to destroy Good. America was once the haven of all that is good and noble. Not anymore, and therein lies the seed of our destruction. I wish it weren't so, but evil men armed with nukes does not bode well for the future.

So I pray, hoping that God will hear my prayers and spare my country from the horrors of war.

Ultimately, that's all we can do......pray.

Deus Abraham, salva nos ab incursu maligni, Amen

Look at how much money we give to other countries, I doubt there is one country we don’t pay something. In a way those are reparations and we’re going broke.