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The Forum > Article Comments > The dangers of exceptionalism: Israel , the USA and others > Comments

The dangers of exceptionalism: Israel , the USA and others : Comments

By Stuart Rees, published 9/8/2012

America likes to claim that it has been the leading defender of liberty yet former President Jimmy Carter has argued why his country is no longer entitled to that accolade.

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A well thought out article with words that are long overdue in a global system that is so hypocritical as to be nauseous. It is hard to realize that the USA was once the bastion of democracy, freedom of speech and a capitalistic economy as today it is none of these things.

Two presidential elections both with George W Bush winning were contrived and the democratic process cheated through vote rigging.

Freedom of speech is also a fallacy today or if not a complete fallacy then highly selective as the American press is so docile as to be compared to the Soviet press during the days of the USSR.

Freedom of speech doesn't lend itself to news organizations that print objectively during times of war and I am particularly thinking of Al Jazeera that was twice bombed off the air by US troops.

Capitalism has died in America as it is well known that capitalism's worst enemy is the monopoly which are increasingly in evidence in America today particularly in the media where too many media outlets of differing types are held in the hand of too few.

UN laws seem to apply in a highly selective manner as the UN Security Council has long overstayed its welcome and should be dismantled and something of a more democratic nature constructed to take its place reflecting the world today. No vetoes should be bestowed on any country. No more will the big five frustrate the will of the UN where America has cynically given its veto to Israel while the rest of the world have either voted for the resolution or abstained.

What hypocrisy and irony do we witness today when America condemn Russia and China of frustrating the will of the UN through the use of their veto to protect Syria. There is no justice in the UN today but there never really has been

Maybe the time is ripe to dismiss the political teaching of Machiavelli and return to a time of hope, vision and a real global partnership based on the law applying to all countries evenly.
Posted by Ulis, Friday, 10 August 2012 6:15:41 PM
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Ulis <Maybe the time is ripe to dismiss the political teaching of Machiavelli and return to a time of hope, vision and a real global partnership based on the law applying to all countries evenly.>

A nice idea Ulis, but who is going to enforce this global partnership based on the law applying to all Countries evenly. That was the original idea behind the United Nations after World War2.
It hasn’t worked in the past and for the same reasons it will not work in the future.

When they taught me about the United Nations many decades ago at school I refuted it in my mind. I thought that will never work, because nations with the power will always seek to have things serve their own interests. There is also the reality that even nations without superior weaponry in the United Nations, vote in ways that serve their own alliances and interests too, so their votes are biased and predudiced and far from a global partnership.

I have never believed in paper treaties and I have never believed that the United Nations could work either and my beliefs have been proven right. Don’t waste time in thinking that what you say above about a global partnership is any less Utopian than it was in the past. A lovely idea but in reality given the fact that human beings will always back a horse called, "Self Interest", impossible.
Posted by CHERFUL, Sunday, 12 August 2012 5:08:04 PM
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Stuart Rees,

Makes no mention of the six day war in this article.
The fact that a few Arab states raced over and attacked Israel and got beaten in six days. That was when Israel took control of the Gazza strip probably as a buffer between Israel and the Arab states.

Neither side is right or wrong in this conflict. It is simply
a territorial war over the land, between two bloodlines (tribes).
Both have equal need of the land to survive. They can't share it
as the peaceniks might say, because there is simply not enough room or resources to support the fast growing populations on both sides.

There really is no answer to it. Bloodline loyalties being
what they are, the white Christians tend to side with the Jews and the Arab bloodlines tend to side with the Palestinians. So we could
all be plunged into another world war because of these loyalties.
As we were pulled into World War1 and World War2.
Posted by CHERFUL, Sunday, 12 August 2012 5:23:27 PM
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<human beings will always back a horse called, "Self Interest"> Would that be ALL human beings CHERFUL ... or just the anti-social, anti-democratic parasitic elites who make up the Capitalist Class?!
Posted by Sowat, Sunday, 12 August 2012 5:33:20 PM
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The U.S. and Israel are exceptional.

They are exceptionally imperial, exceptionally deranged, exceptionally stupid, exceptionally warlike, exceptionally racist, exceptionally brutal, exceptionally immature, exceptionally immoral, exceptionally fanatical, exceptionally duplicitous, and exceptionally greedy, etc.

I could've added at least another dozen or more items but I think I've made my point!
Posted by David G, Sunday, 12 August 2012 6:07:09 PM
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How pathetic, Israel and the US are not the source of all evil. Rantings to that effect are just the spleen of those who want unearned power. Lefties feel so pure while creating nothing but expecting to spend and direct the resources of the productive sectors of society.
Frankly these counties are exceptional in that they create a reference point against which all others can be measured. There are no Arab counties as Democratic as the most stacked Democrat machine city in the US, let alone Israel.
The only thing that has held the Middle East together has been oil money, but what is going to happen now that the money-go-round is ending. The US and even Europe has enough energy, it will be interesting.
Posted by McCackie, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 6:13:45 PM
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