There may not be another nation more prone to blatant and self-righteous hypocrisy than the United States. U.S. politicians and public officials think that the United States has a divine right - or some entitlement like that - which allows America to apply one rule for itself and another for all others nations.

Take the issue of arm sales. The United States wants to forever maintain a near hegemony when it comes to advanced weaponry in the world and if any other nation is engaging in a perceived arms build-up not only does the United States express words of concern and opposition, but it was during the Bush administration official state doctrine to use war to stop these nations:

Though the Wolfowitz Memo was denounced and dismissed in 1992, it became American policy in the 33-page National Security Strategy (NSS) issued by President Bush on Sept. 21, 2002. Washington Post reporter Tim Reich describes it as a “watershed in U.S. foreign policy” that “reverses the fundamental principles that have guided successive Presidents for more than 50 years: containment and deterrence.”

Andrew Bacevich, a professor at Boston University, writes of the NSS that he marvels at “its fusion of breathtaking utopianism with barely disguised machtpolitik. It reads as if it were the product not of sober, ostensibly conservative Republicans but of an unlikely collaboration between Woodrow Wilson and the elder Field Marshal von Moltke.”

In confronting America’s adversaries, the paper declares, “We will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting preemptively.” It warns any nation that seeks to acquire power to rival the United States that it will be courting war with the United States:

[T]he president has no intention of allowing any nation to catch up with the huge lead the United States has opened since the fall of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago. … Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hopes of surpassing or equaling the power of the United States.

This is why while America has 11 carrier units, when China expresses interest in developing one the Pentagon issues dire warning about how this represents a aggressive ‘Rising China’. To American-superiority zealots, the United States is supposed to forever remain the world superpower and no one is to challenge its order - even when that order is the presence of U.S. troops and armaments in, say, Russia’s backyard.

The United States - in that entitlement - often voices opposition to, say, France selling high-grade weaponry to, say, Russia because apparently the Russian’s have no right to such defense:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told French officials Monday that he was concerned about their plans to sell Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Russia, although there is little if anything the United States could do to block the deal, officials said.

This is incredibly hypocrisy and one made incredibly egregious given what the United States just recently did:

The Obama administration announced the sale Friday of $6 billion worth of Patriot anti-missile systems, helicopters, mine-sweeping ships and communications equipment to Taiwan in a long-expected move that sparked an angry protest from China.

In a strongly worded statement on Saturday, China’s Defense Ministry suspended military exchanges with the United States and summoned the U.S. defense attache to lodge a “solemn protest” over the sale, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

So in America’s book: France is wrong to sell Russia weapons over American objections, but the United States can sell weapons to Taiwan in the face of Chinese objections. What gives American objections more legitimate against otherwise? Why is it that America thinks is can sell weapons to Taiwan in the face of Chinese opposition but then whine when France sells to Russia? Is America to have a veto and demand it interests be considered in a arms deal between foreign nations all the while America thinks it can sell whatever to whomever and never consider the interests of others? Bullshit.

This double-standard, arrogance and entitlement mentality is why many nations often find U.S. foreign policy incredibly hypocritical.