Actually, though I am an american citizen, I don't bother to vote. I can't stand either major party, and I don't "identify" with our current president, either of his likely replacements, or any other recent president.
My preference for america not losing (that is, not being at a strategic disadvantage relative to other countries) is because (for all its flaws), I think america is (mostly) (compared to our enemies) "the good guys". If I were brought up in some other system, I'd undoubtedly feel different. Obviously I couldn't be on the right side in both cases, so by what logic do I think I'm on the right side of things? Because I was brought up in this system, and I do think we're "the good guys" (at least relatively speaking).
Now I readily accept the possibility that I'm wrong in my worldview (if such a phrase actually means anything at all), and I'm all in favor of questioning my allegiance and considering that either I was mistaken in the past, or perhaps I was right in the past but conditions have changed. I do this regularly, but so far I still come out on the "we're the good guys" side.
Even granting the possibility that the wool is being pulled over my eyes, I still have to come out on the side I think is right. I assure you "the bad guys" spend very little time engaging in all this navel-gazing, so for us to become all high-minded and neutral and indifferent to the outcome virtually guarantees that the bad guys will win.
America-bashing is quite popular, but it's really rather juvenile (compare "amerikka" to a REAL police state) and quite irresponsible. America's enemies are FAR harsher on the environment, women, minorities, the poor, homosexuals, etc than even the wingnut's version of "bushitler" and the rest of the "neocon conspiracy" . Can any sane person seriously NOT care who comes out on top in the long run?
On August 6th, in 1945, the world saw the first use of atomic weapons against human targets. On this day 63 years ago, humanity lost its nuclear virginity. Until the end of time we will be a species that has used fission bombs in anger.
Time has passed, and we still haven't blown up our world, despite a close call or two. Which makes it difficult to criticize the decision - would things still have turned out all right, if anyone had chosen differently, anywhere along the way?
Maybe we needed to see the ruins, of the city and the people.
Maybe we didn't.
There's an ongoing debate - and no, it is not a settled issue - over whether the Japanese would have surrendered without the Bomb. But I would not have dropped the Bomb even to save the lives of American soldiers, because I would have wanted to preserve that world where atomic weapons had never been used - to not cross that line. I don't know about history to this point; but the world would be safer now, I think, today, if no one had ever used atomic weapons in war, and the idea was not considered suitable for polite discussion.
I'm not saying it was wrong. I don't know for certain that it was wrong. I wouldn't have thought that humanity could make it this far without using atomic weapons again. All I can say is that if it had been me, I wouldn't have done it.