If an ethical concept is valid among individuals, why not groups of individuals, otherwise known as nations?

Question

Put another way, if the USA had followed the Christian concept of forgiveness, for example, before and during World War II, would Americans now be living under Nazi German/ Imperialistic Japanese rule? Therefore, if an ethical concept is impractical on an international level, why is it valid and practical on an individual level?

Thank you for your answer eilka. I don't mean to be argumentative, but weren't the two atom bombs which the USA dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan acts of revenge? Unprecedented in warfare until the USA used them, Americans established the use of nuclear weapons against international enemies. If you will study newspapers of that era, you will find that Americans considered the use of atom bombs against Japan to be SWEET REVENGE. Around 150,000 men, women, and children were incinerated by these bombs, and many others were horribly burned and maimed, with others dying of radiation poisoning.

Answer 1

I think the problem with any ethical concept is the "too many hands in the pot" syndrome; whenever you get more than one person involved in the same thing, ethics and ideas will get distorted even when there's only two people in the 'group' because everyone thinks a little differently. Ethical concepts should be practical on international levels, but with such a wide range of beliefs and morals as this world, has, it can be difficult if not impossible for a large group of people to agree on anything.

Answer 2

What do you mean by "Christian concept of forgiveness"? I think you rather mean the "turn the other cheek" thing here, and I think that this is wrong on the individual as well as on the international level. I mean on the individual level you also have to stop criminals. If someone attacks you, you have to defend yourself. If someone attacks someone who can't defend himself, you have to help. I mean if you imagine a situation analogous to World War II on an individual level, that would be two guys (standing for Germany and Japan) running around with guns and shooting people, and the USA would be one of the cops who stops them after one of the guys has even attacked him, and everyone would say this cop has done his duty.

About forgiveness, well there was never any revenge taken on Germany or Japan, instead America helped Germany very much after the war to rebuild the country and to establish a democracy. I am not sure about the situation in Japan.