Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement to
the American people in the New York Times, a tirade of responses washed upon
the media from all sides of the political spectrum. CNN’s Crossfire provided a perfect example of
left and right America’s united condemnation of Putin’s curt denial that
America is an exceptional nation when Van Jones joined Newt Gingrich in
trumpeting America’s exceptional status.
Jones and Gingrich went on to say that America is indeed an
exceptional nation due to its founding ideals and the historical progress to
materialize the promise of those ideals from George Washington to Martin Luther
King Jr. The pair referenced how America redeemed itself from slavery, its
original sin, through the struggle of the Civil War. They also discussed how
present day American society provides equal opportunity to all people through
the virtue of personal liberty. While there is plenty of truth to this
illustration of American exceptionalism, none of what Jones and Gingrich actually
said responds to the points Putin was making in his Op Ed.
Vladimir Putin’s article directly referred to American
foreign policy, by asserting that it is dangerous to rationalize military
action on another country based on some self righteous assumption that the
ideals guiding your government’s decision making are somehow exceptional.
Historically speaking, Putin is right. From the Spanish American War onwards, American
foreign policy has been far from exceptional. For 130 years, America has been
on a slow path towards empire that has ended in reluctant hegemony.
America is no more exceptional than the British, Spanish, or
Roman empires of the past. Far from being a beacon of hope, America has merely
continued to carry the torch of the Western imperial tradition. America has
often sold its ideals for pragmatism by supporting oppressive regimes around
the world including the Iranian Shah, General Diem in South Vietnam, Augusto
Pinochet in Chile, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
In 1898, following the overthrow their Spanish imperial
overlords, the so-called beacon of hope crushed the Philippines’ right to
democracy and self-determination by refusing to grant the island nation
independence. Since the 1950s our government has consistently sided with the
Pakistani side of the partition instead of India the largest democracy on
earth, despite the fact that Pakistan is ruled by a corrupt dictatorship
frequently plagued with military coups and has proven to be an untrustworthy
ally by providing a haven to America’s greatest enemies.
Time and time again throughout the 20th century,
America seemed to be on the wrong side of freedom and revolution. Many of the
past century’s George Washington’s including Nelson Mandala, Salvador Allende,
Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, and even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were enemies of
the American government.
Instead of inciting a progressive path towards the global
implementation of America’s ideals in the freedom from want and freedom from
fear, our government has done the opposite. After bailing out Europe and Japan
with the Marshall Plan following World War Two, the American government refused
to pass the successful program onto the third world. Instead, in the 1980s, The
Reagan Administration established a system of structural adjustments that the
developing world must abide by to receive economic aid from the IMF. As a
result, the developing world has been forced into accepting a perpetual state
of dependency on the developed world thereby ensuring that there will always be
a world defined by a separation of excess and hunger.
In the 21st century, America’s imperial identity
has only gotten worse. Following the September 11th attacks, the
American government responded with a series of security reforms that led to
the atrophy of liberty. The feelings of fear and anger following the 2001
terrorist attacks eventually led to an unwarranted attack on Iraq despite
unanimous worldwide opposition. The War
on Terrorism has led to a new evolution of warfare conducted by unmanned
aircraft ignorant of national borders and secret courts and prisons blind to
ethics and justice.
Has there been any good that has come from the American
empire? Sure we had a few successes in post war Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
American global leadership has also seen the rise of the UN, the worldwide
economy, and the Internet. But every empire leaves something good behind. For
instance, the British Empire left the world Singapore, Hong Kong, and they left
India a system of government, a unified language, and a national train system.
The American empire is very real and it is potent if you are
willing to accept it. By doing so you accept the fact that America is not an
exceptional nation in terms of the issues that Putin is discussing. Instead of
Roman phalanxes or white helmets with monocles, our empire comes in the form of
formally dressed businessmen clad in custom made suits armed with brief cases
full of figures, derivatives, algorithms, and contracts.
This is simply a reality that we must accept as the global
hegemon. By recognizing this perhaps we as Americans can learn to think
introspectively about the consequences of our actions be they military or
diplomatic instead of simply accepting the intellectually lazy argument that we
our special and we can do no wrong. That is what Putin is trying to remind us,
so perhaps we should heed his word of caution.
