Re: Chile
I agree with you; "whataboutery" is not a valid argument. But sadly I do not see a single moral justification, overwhelming or not, in US military interventions since Clinton. I see a desire to preserve relationships with "friendly" oil states as part of a general Eastern strategy, with a thin coating of moral justification.
Bush 1 had some justification for the original Gulf War, though how much worse Saddam was than the Kuwaiti regime is open to doubt - when we assess Arab regimes we tend carefully to ignore the slave and indentured labourers who actually work in those States in considering their suitability to partner with the West.
The US uses "whataboutery" all the time when it isn't playing the exceptionalist card. My view is that Ukraine should be a European-Russian local issue and the US should keep out rather than make mischief. US/Saudi manipulation of the oil price to hurt the Russian economy is a typical blunt instrument approach that may have very bad unintended consequences. I suspect that without US poking and prodding, Merkel and Putin would have got it all sorted by now. I may be wrong, but at least I'm not as big a fantasist as Applebaum.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
