Quote Originally Posted by PanzerJager
That makes the comment even more outrageous as you were not even trying to garner some level of agreement with the original anti-american poster.
Now that is funny - are you so idealogical blinded that you can not see how yes indeed certain aspects of the American government leads to individuals becoming corrupt because of the power involved? That we have had leaders who for the most part went into office with all good intentions - who have become corrupt because of the power.

Hell no I wasn't trying to find a level of agreement with the orginial poster - because his question is correct and while his perception is slightly skewed because of his views - notice how I called him on the 300 countries comments. Which he admitted he was incorrect. - the premise of his question and the premise of his answer are correct.

Do you think vast power somehow harms the subject itself or would it be different if the super power was another country ?

The answer to this question is simple - power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I see no instance where any US president can be considered in the same vein as those dictators. That kind of rhetoric only promotes the kind of relativism that people like the original poster try and draw between America and such empires as the Nazis and Soviets.
Again your placing values on things that are not there.

Corruption is corruption regardless of who the individual is or what the individual does. The Relative value of the impact of the crime on certain individuals is far greater then others - but they all fell for the oldest adage of them all - which is always shown to be true regardless of what level you look at.