Ender said:
not teaching past mistakes to the future.
Yes, forget about the past. Don't teach students about the Holocaust or about oppressive rulers all over the world throughout history who have slaughtered their own people. Let's just pretend it didn't happen. (sarcasm)
America was founded by people fleeing the government they hated only to implement the same techniques over here. At first it was religion, but then it quickly became greed. People saw an inferior culture only armed with metallic tools and weapons that were no match for their guns. The saw great farmland that they could use to make their own profits with products such as tobacco. But of course the white man couldn't do that, so they would point a gun at the head of an unarmed "savage" and make their money off of them or off of indentured servitude that lasted a lifetime. Not only that, but there were the lovely furs from animals like beavers and buffalo that they could easily rip off from the Natives with the trade of alcohol. Plus there was just land, land, and more land, and European settlers needed it all. So my answer is it was founded on greed and still is founded on greed, only we use Third World countries to fill our pockets.
By the way, Heresy, are you really in Iraq fighting against the coalition forces?