American Exceptionalism

[jdp349]

whenever I engage self identified conservatives in a discussion relating to foreign policy and international affairs I find a universal premise in common in their arguments that is an outright contradiction. In essence they seem to contend that the United States generally holds a position of moral superiority as a force for "good and justice" which allows them to justify and rationalize an aggressive foreign policy because it is the name of these values ie the ends justify the means. However when you press them and demonstrate that a policy that truly prioritizes any reasonable notion of justice would look VERY different than our own (even when you use their own given definition of justice) they defer to the age old argument that might makes right. They'll accuse you of being a typical naive liberal that doesn't understand the realities of international politics. Most don't realize that they've completely betrayed their position of moral superiority and when you point out that in order to believe the United States to be morally superior due to it's economic and military strength they must hold that justice is whatever is the whim of the most powerful entity in any setting. Essentially it's just the law of the jungle used to justify a foreign policy of tyranny. Conversation usually ends there.

I'm starting to think that American Exceptionalism can be simply defined as the belief that as a nation we are unique in that our aggressive and relentless pursuit of power morally justifies itself. Therefore any force that opposes us is unjust.

[Dawson Leery]

1. Your last line explains the problem of "American Exceptionalism".

It is the drug addiction that will ruin us all.

The idea that we are 'unique' justifies the desire to play and win at any cost.

[Poll_Blind]

2. There used to be some merit, at least some, to the concept of American Exceptionalism.

Those days are long gone. Up until sometime around the 50's I think the concept worked, at least in part. While one could argue whether the Vietnam War was just or not (I don't think it was), the military state which America overwhelmingly became in the 80's and afterward blurred absolutely any disctinction which might conceivably set us as an example for any other country, save Zimbabwe or Yemen or someplace like that.

And while we had lost that patina or halo or whatever in the 80's and 90's, the way America handled September 11th and the unending wars America started in Iraq and Afghanistan (as well as other places we occasionally drop a cruise or hellfire missile on) blew away the ability to command any sort of respect from the rest of the world.

And this is before you start figuring in us propping up South American dictators, the Shah of Iran, our one-sided diplomatic relations with Israel (and the rest of the Middle East and large parts of Asia) and our open disregard for the NNPT in regards to Israel and more-recently India and Pakistan.

Canada has more reason to claim themselves as an exception unto the world than we do. It was sort of nice while it lasted, but they nasty business never really stopped.

PB

[OrwellwasRight]

3. There is no exceptionalism of any nation.

Each is made up of fallible, selfish, self-absorbed human beings who have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The belief that we are superior to other nations is just of self-absorption run amok, a bullshit license to take what we want -- ditto for Napoleon's France, Hitler's Germany, Hirohito's Japan, and whatever else.

I can't believe it is still a respectable/acceptable point of view in this day and age. It should have died with other stupid ideas like the inferiority of women and the superiority of whites.

But it is. I hear it from supposedly reasonable people all the time.

[oceanman]

4. Ammerican Exceptionalism

No surprise since all of us have been indoctrinated since we entered the public education system about the 'shining beacon of light' bs. The problem of course is that was the end of the education, or at least where most people seem to have stopped listening. Guess what - we may still may have the 'military might', but the rest of it is in the toilet - and even the 'military might' is now approaching joke status. Sure we have 700+ military bases all over the world, 12-13 carrier groups cruising the worlds oceans, nuke & attack subs doing the same, a high-tech (high-altitude) air force and other toys, but who is the enemy? A bunch of rag-tag guerrillas in Afghanistan. Good lord, where is the hubris that says we can do what the British Empire and the Russians, both of whom had adjacent territories to Afghanistan, couldn't do, and from half a world away? One can only wonder what the logistic cost of these wars is. Talk about poring money down a rat hole.

Listen to the generals - ya right. These are the guys that weren't cashiered by the Bush administration because they questioned the necessity of these wars, not to mention that they make their careers and promotions based on fighting a war. They dream of this shit. They all want to be Eisenhauers & Pattons (and frankly Patton was a half-assed wanna-be).