American Exceptionalism.
It seems barely a day goes by without ghouls from the past trolling our airways, pontificating about how the USA should conduct itself. These individuals are seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were responsible for misleading the nation into a war – leading to the destruction of any moral authority the USA may have had, or could have cultivated after 9/11.
Relatively likable villains, to my mind at least, like Condoleezza Rice have been received with rapt attention at virtually every college in the country, allowed to busily attempt to rewrite history, thus helping undermine the longer-term credibility of the country. We can lecture the Russians or the Chinese all we want, but all for naught, as the hypocrisy, exacerbated by mass cultural denial, is so overwhelming.
I wanted to like Gaddafi crush Rice. She was attractive in those knee-high leather boots, smart, and had broken through ceilings. But I suspect her pride at those career achievements was so great that she ditched her compass. Joining a team for 2000 – with foreign policy objectives belonging in the previous millennium – they were always doomed to fail. The fact that George Bush, Jr. was intellectually and psychologically unfit for the job was simply going to add Texan oil to the fire.
Within the context of the Bush foreign policy team, I still retain a grain of empathy for Bush (he was out of his depth) and Rice. I am not convinced either would have wanted to out Valerie Plame. I doubt that either would have been happy to actually wantonly alienate virtually every actual or potential ally. I doubt if either understood the negative consequences of ramming delusional and insulting American exceptionalism down collective overseas throats. Just because European foreign policy remains fractured and lethargic does not make the opposite, sans intelligence, correct.
My ire really is directed toward people like Dick Cheney or the West’s worst diplomat, John Bolton. Dick Cheney (like both George Bushes) is an oilman. These people arrogantly and unethically thought it was a good idea to design an energy policy without input from non-oilmen. Doing this, not only did they threaten mankind via exponentially increasing climate issues, but they condemned the country to continue to embark upon wars caused by such fashioned energy policy. Worse, the USA not only pays the initial cost of such wars, but creates and then funds (via oil revenues to Middle Eastern counties) the enemies they must destroy. Then they must embark on often futile and always costly efforts to rebuild from the very destruction that has been wrought.
We now know the country was misled into war. A couple of years after the war, in 2004, when the facts had been established, two thirds of Stupidparty disciples still believed the USA had been attacked by Iraq. Presidential aspirant Sarah Palin also did not have the intellectual curiosity to figure out this easily resolvable puzzle. What worse crime can there be against the nation than to mislead that nation into war? What worse crime against humanity? Those responsible are war criminals and some are traitors. For it is clear Scooter – fall guy – Libby did not act alone.
But in spite of that, they still get to talk – seemingly endlessly and on any platform they choose. And people listen, oblivious of the “poisonous tree.” However, the world is watching, and the world finds it difficult to be lectured to by war criminals, and finds it difficult to respect a country that treats crimes against humanity as irrelevant when Americans do it. Tony Blair should likewise be held accountable.
So Obama is weak? Who gets to define what this even means? And even in a two-dimensional world, this appears to be a stretch. Of course, there are thousands of smart prognosticators, who have to continuously write to engage the reader or “their readers,” so it is inevitable that such criticism will occur and on occasion such a narrative be well constructed. I would be interested in such reading material, assuming it came from an objective, credible source. I would be most interested in such opinions when written by non-Americans. Then I would want to read the rebuttal. For the vast majority of us not attending high-level briefings, not having to deal with the Gordian knot, I think it is pretty absurd to jump on any bandwagon – especially when such cheap labels are cast in a politically polarized environment motivated by shallow, partisan Stupidparty goals. But when one considers where this specific criticism comes from and the path these discredited wraithlike individuals would like to put us back on – what these critics so cavalierly propose – that path seems to lead to oblivion.
First, take the notion that without the USA we are all screwed. Putting aside the fact that energy policy is the root cause of Middle Eastern wars, such a message can find some sustenance; i.e., it can be debated. But that debate was fundamentally altered by the policies of Obama. Perhaps Japan can be cajoled into becoming a better buttress against Chinese imperialism; in Libya the USA set the playing field but forced NATO to execute. Syria is another case in point, where the battle lines have not yet devolved into East/West conflict. The French took responsibility for dealing with Mali, and international efforts to pressure Iran appear well coordinated and might be bearing fruit. Off course, Congress will work hard to derail any progress, because of their irrational hatred of anything Obama and inability to engage in non-Myth-based thinking. That the Stupidparty in Congress (backed by some Democrats overly influenced by Israeli lobbying) came close to scuppering those Iranian efforts was a stunning example of how the USA is on the brink of becoming a pariah.
But no, the “Vulcans” think all this lack of war, lack of successful attacks on U.S. soil – this is caused by weakness. We should attack Syria by supporting nebulous rebels who may or may not have a constructive or credible governance plan, may or may not be better than the existing regime. We should increase sanctions against Iran, in a manner designed to appease the Israeli lobbyists and to promote military attacks during ongoing diplomacy (similar to the Iraq War, where even with Hussein ready to leave, that was not enough – only war was enough). Attack China, blow up North Korea, ignore Nigerian sovereignty; we should take back the Crimea – before even considering the historical nuances or exploring the obvious strategy of unbundling Putin from his supportive billionaire Oligarchs or otherwise weakening the Russian economy to make imperialistic ambitions absurdly financially burdensome. Yes, this is made harder to do because of myopic energy policy. Yes, thinking is hard, oftentimes time-consuming work, but searching for constructive solutions should be conducted before killing people. Killing people usually means creating more enemies – as family, friends, and compatriots tend to find such actions unforgivable.
I do not pretend to know the solutions. These issues are extremely complex, not simply diplomatically but morally. That is why we hope the president we elect will be wise enough to pick competent advisers. We presume they will motivated by decency rather than oil, by introspection and curiosity rather than parochial arrogance. That was why George Bush, Jr. was given some latitude as he planned his invasion of Iraq.
But we should not be giving any weight to war criminals or to the very architects of the disastrous foreign policy pursued 2000–2008. The next time I read a piece from Dick Cheney, expecting any insight, it would have to be about conditions within the U.S. penal system. Until that happens, and should America’s foreign policy statements be anyway reflective of the Cheney and his cabal, such statements will always be subject to ridicule, and that would be mankind’s loss because the USA is capable of being a force for good.
