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My Reply to Washington Post Column by Gene Robinson

4 Comments

Robinson argues that America IS exceptional. I begged to differ.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-vladimir-america-is-exceptional/2013/09/12/4b234320-1be2-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html?hpid=z3

America is no more exceptional than any other nation, village or tribe. Exceptionalism and The American Way of Life are the two biggest lies that have corrupted what could have been a grand experiment in democracy and the land of the free.

It is rather obvious that this exceptional nation has killed more people in wars of aggression to control and extract the earth’s resources than any other nation. This exceptional nation has used the most horrific weapons to commit genocide beginning with the Native Americans, the Philippines, dozens of countries in South and Central America, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. America has used napalm, white phosphorous, Agent Orange, depleted Uranium, and the most devastating and indiscriminate weapon of mass destruction of all, the Atomic Bomb. Not once, but twice. And, America has been threatening the world with the use of it again should any nation dare to challenge the imperial advance.

I guess in a way, that makes America exceptional. But look what exceptionalism has done to the American people: the greatest income disparity since 1927; foreclosures; good manufacturing jobs shipped overseas; a neglected infrastructure; a under-funded and lousy school system; college debt crippling graduates; the elimination of social uplift programs; the attacks on Social Security and Medicare; no universal health care; tens of thousands of injured vets without proper care; and trillions of dollars of debt. And oh, the nation with the most incarcerated people on the planet, and Guantanamo.

But there’s more. The Patriot Act, the NDAA, and the spying of the CIA, FBI, and NSA have all but deprived us of our freedoms and classified any who speak out against these evils as terrorists.

Vlaidimir Putin is not without fault. Russia itself has a terrible record of repression. He accomplished two things: he forced America to look in the mirror, and he slam-dunked Obama. Neither what we see in the mirror nor Obama are particularly pretty.