I meant to add:

the tradition of going around and trying to stop atrocities began with the Nazis.

All the time I was in Germany (a good bit of it when Reagan was in office) I was "assaulted" by folks on the left for various American misdeeds. I remember even being told I was probably happy that the Brits leveled Dresden. Of course, as a life long enlightened leftist (very much human rights over state rights and a co-founder of ICAR...International Committee Against Racism... an org that was itching to intervene in S. Africa to bring an end to Apartheid, among other things) I was appalled by such a remark coming from folks I would have thought doing anything to stop the nazis was fair game.

That was the start of my education about the political category of German that you seem to belong to.