To be fair, almost every society portrays itself as the defender of whatever is right/good.

And, to be equally as fair, the only genuinely good guys are the ones that are too small to enforce their will upon others directly - small countries without arms who are forced to find other ways to engage with others in order to achieve whatever goals they have (resource acquisition)

The Americans have been extremely adept at dominating the discourse via non-government pathways (Hollywood)