The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.
~ Stanley Kubrick
I've always assumed that countries do what they can get away with. It really irks me when people think the United States is uniquely evil or ugly. First off because in so many ways the truth is the opposite of that, and then because they don't seem to think that small countries aren't any more virtuous than others, they just can't get away with it like the major powers can.