Is the U.S.A. Evil?

There seems to be a great deal of hate directed toward the United States coming from its own citizenry, particularly the far left. I want to examine this issue of whether the U.S.A. is actually evil and see if it has any merit. (For the record, I am an independent who leans toward the right)

First, I want to be clear: I am talking about the actions of the U.S. government, regardless of whether those actions have been endorsed by its people.

Historically, there have definitely been instances when the U.S. has acted less than admirably. As any student of history knows, the United States endorsed slavery right up to the time of the Civil War. That is a black mark against it. Similarly, our treatment of the Native Americans has been, at times, less than stellar. I once heard that an American general even sent blankets infected with the small pox virus to Native American communities, but weeks later I heard a report on Bill O'Reilly (a former history teacher) that that was a lie--the product of fraudulent research--so I don't know what to believe. Ah, I found a reference here (look at 1833): http://www.americanindianmovement.org/aajigaaning/aajigaaningstories.html . Here, I would like to say that whatever the history books tell us (those written by the conquerors or those written by the subjugated) the truth of the matter is buried in the past. Did the U.S. basically steal all its land from the Native Americans? Yes. That much is obvious. Did they use smallpox as a weapon? That, I'm not so sure about. Are the American people going to pack up their things and give all the land back to the Native Americans? Uh, no. That is not feasible. Native Americans have a legitimate gripe against the U.S. Blacks have a legitimate gripe against Whites. But those two mistakes belong in the past. We can't undo them; we can only learn from them.