And your essay is entirely valid and brings to light horrible things the US government did.

But your counter to u/not-picky is part of the problem. By dismissing the first part of what he answered with, and only replying the the second part, you missed an opportunity to engage with someone who was clearly interested enough to read what you wrote and engage with you on it.

Nah, my man… I think you are just a bit obtuse and missed the point of my comment entirely.

Genghis Khan’s mongol horde enabled him to rape and pillage so successfully that 16 million living men, or 0.5% of all males alive on Earth today, can trace their genealogy directly back to Khan.

OP, in your view, does this also qualify Mongolia as the problem?

Should those 16 million living descendants of rape victims be holding out for reparations?

My genealogy is Scotch-Irish, and far back blood relatives were subject to the rite of prima nocta.

Would compensation for this past historical behavior be laid at the feet of the Scottish monarchy, or should it be the responsibility of Great Britain, given that the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England via the Union of Treaty, formally ratified by both parliaments in 1707 to form one joint Kingdom of Great Britain? Or, should recompense instead be borne by the United Kingdom, which governs both islands today?

Is the recent request from Greece for additional WWII reparations from Germany for Nazi atrocities valid, despite the terms set forth in the Treaty of Versailles, especially in light of Germany’s payment of $62 million dollars to Greece in 1960? Would the confiscation of property in Greece that is owned in 2023 by German citizens or companies, persons whom were not alive during the time of war or in the case of business entities not even formed under articles of incorporation until the turn of the century, over 60 years later, be valid? Were this to go forward, would it be justifiable, or a miscarriage of justice? What about the obvious and uncomfortable parallels to Nazi Party confiscation of Jewish-owned businesses and properties leading up to the rise of the Reich?

At what point do historical actions that were undertaken by people long dead cease to be attributed to the living? Is acknowledgment that such things were horrific, that these terrible events must be included in the history lessons taught to subsequent generations, not only to prevent history from repeating itself, but rather to better ourselves, insufficient? Who but the living can decide when the past may be let go, provided the lessons it teaches us are retained?