If there was a Christian God, and God had all the good and positive attributes he or she is supposed to have, and that God were looking down on this world in the position of an impartial judge, which government would be most likely to be punished for a failure to live up to his or her high standards?
Of course, there are plenty of candidates. The world is full of despots, demagogues, and criminal governments, but most of them began exactly as that: criminal enterprises dressed in the gaudy robes of government.
What if one of the criteria God used in making his or her decision was ‘failed promise?"
What if in sifting trough the evidence he or she happened upon a document or two called The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution containing words like "We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal - that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
Or "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Or "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."
Or "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."
What if this government, after such an honest start, began writing secret documents authorizing various tortures and other assorted inhuman and heartless things like secret prisons, and God found them.
What if God found this government, with the most advanced and powerful military on earth, invaded a sovereign country and destroyed it just because it could. What if the next thing he found was a transcript of the Nuremberg Trials and words like "The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated."
And what if looking further he or she came across these words from a Former Nuremberg prosecutor who said: "What the United States is saying is that we don't want the rule of law. I think that is dangerous, very dangerous. Because we cannot lay down a law for the United States and not for the rest of the world. That doesn't fly. Justice Jackson made that clear at Nuremberg. Law must apply to everyone equally or it's not law at all. Those who are pushing the other view have a misguided idea of what law is all about. They also have a misguided conception of how to safeguard the welfare and justice and rights for citizens everywhere."
In his or her own inspired words, God would look down on the United States and say "To whom much is given, much is expected. - Luke 12:48." I find you guilty as charged.