You make many good points Erik. However, if you still wonder why the West gets such a bad reputation you need to look back at history to both Russia and China and weigh how much of their atrocities were visited upon themselves and how much against other nations. Russia was by far the worst in this respect, but even the USSR which ruled Eastern Europe with an iron fist never had colonial ambitions.

Europe literally drew the maps of Asia and Africa. Yes, the Arabs practiced slavery. Yet they themselves were victims of European expansionism, colonialism and nation building. They never systematically stripped countries of their resources.

There are few countries, if any, in Africa which were not affected by political or economic meddling (usually both) from the West. The US, in turn, dominated and oppressed the entire western hemisphere until 1990. It effected 70 regime changes all over the world during this time. A lot of these "regimes" were actually democratically elected governments. Countless people were tortured and/or murdered as a result. And as you well know, this never stopped in the post-Cold war era. The US (and allies) just went into full war mode after that.

That is in itself a joke. The US has been at war with someone for about 226 of the 246 years since 1776. No one nation comes close to that in that period.

Yes, there is criticism in the media. But as you yourself admit, no one ever faced any consequences for anything. And the one-sidedness with which even the current war is treated is telling. The greater moral weight sits with Russia, yes. Innocent civilians are killed by Russians, not Americans. But it was two decades of Western policy which brought Putin to the point of making this choice. He made the wrong choice, certainly. But if our politicians did what they should have done, the choice wouldn't have presented itself at all.