The end of American exceptionalism

[IndianaGreen]

American exceptionalism is as racist as the German Gott min uns.

The end of American exceptionalism

By Mark LeVine

System of global dominance

Obama cannot acknowledge what the rest of the world well understands: that the wars he has inherited, and have now made his own, are the direct result of decades of policies aimed at supporting a system that enabled the global dominance of the US, but at the cost of large-scale violence, oppression and exploitation across the developing world.

Rather than challenge or even scrap the system that produced this violence and the periodic blowback it generates, the Obama doctrine will reinforce it.

Thus the bewildering continuities between Obama's policies and those of George Bush, his predecessor, emerge: the continued presence in Iraq - which is not close to "winding down" as the president described it, the deepening footprint in Afghanistan, the refusal to support treaties banning land mines and biological weapons, the continued use of private mercenaries, the ongoing detainee abuse at Guantanamo and Bagram prisons, and defence spending higher even than his Republican predecessor's.

These are not mistakes; they are inevitable policy choices in a system built on imperial dominance. And like empires past, they are justified by the use of rhetoric and arguments that exalt one's own ideals while misrepresenting and denigrating those against whom the mistakes are committed.

But where Bush administration officials readily admitted America's imperial status, Obama has banished the idea from polite conversation even as he shores up the system.

And so Obama declared in Oslo that when the US fights it does so as the "standard bearer" of morally justifiable violence, engaging only in "just wars" to pacify otherwise unresolvable conflicts.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/2009121613200705468.html

[marmar]

1. Nevemind....That Mark LEVIN doesn't have an "e" at the end of his name.

nt

[bjk5530]

2. that idea was always bullshit

[oceanman]

5. The end of American exceptionalism

Totally. Where did the notion of 'American exceptionalism' ever occur other than within our 'own' minds? Never heard that thought expressed by a 'non-American'.

[The Green Manalishi]

3. American Exceptionalism

is so deeply ingrained in our consciousness that it's not even an issue; those who disagree are considered insane, on both the right and the left. The only difference are the things that each ideology believes MAKE us exceptional.

[Vidar]

4. K&R.

[paulsby]

6. DU loves american exceptionalism

just not the kind where the USA is held out as a POSITIVE exception.

dozens of posts a day use american exceptionalism, except in the opposite vein. iow, we are dumb, uneducated, unsophisticated, arrogant, etc. etc. (choose one or more) and european country X, or europe in general or canada, etc. is so much better.