With respect, and without wishing to be a shill for the USA (and especially not for the Bush administration, which I deplore), I do think that the US has always been more driven by honour, decency and altruism than other nations, (as well as self interest, often, of course), and even by a sense of international responsibility.
Jacko, you're far from naive and I respect your point of view, but I find your angle at odds with most people who have looked past banner headlines and catchphrases. Ironically, until after 9/11 I would have probably sided with you, but I don't think America has changed her spots so much as become more blatent. For the most part I like the US, but hamburgers and cowboy hats belie the real America, the ruthless machine of hegemony, driven by the likes of Cheney.
They might have dropped blankets on Ethiopians like the rest of us, but
most American operations have or had an underlying strategy behind them which was solely for their benefit. Again, I don't have an issue with that -
of course a country mounts operations for their own benefit - the bit that annoys me is the duplicity and lies that hide behind consumer phrases like 'freedom'.
With regard to whether the US is the most altruistic of a dodgy bunch, we could argue all day, I'm sure, but personally I don't think the front runners at the Selfless Olympics would be that far apart from each other - which certainly contradicts my Americans good ~ Russians Bad upbringing too.