{"id":274220,"date":"2016-10-20T09:09:15","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T09:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/lament-for-an-indispensable-america\/"},"modified":"2016-10-20T09:09:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T09:09:15","slug":"lament-for-an-indispensable-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/lament-for-an-indispensable-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Lament for an Indispensable America"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

America\u2019s “exceptionalism” is alive and well. It\u2019s resurfaced
\n wearing a wig in current presidential politics.<\/p>\n

Clinton speaks about America the “indispensable” nation. It\u2019s high sounding fluff. What does it mean? Shall we take a stab? A crutch might be “indispensable” for a crippled man. Does Hillary Clinton have a cripple in mind? Who\u2019s crippled?<\/p>\n

A random guess says its the rest of the world. It needs to be straightened out. No other nation can do it. America is the crutch. “Look at them, down in the mud without a crutch. I\u2019m Hillary. Here\u2019s my message: I\u2019ll keep you out of the mud.” <\/p>\n

A confession: I offer a lament. It\u2019s a lament about the confusions of politicians, especially Hillary Clinton\u2019s. It\u2019s a lament for an exceptional America, for a nation whose core of strength is fading but has yet to vanish. Clinton\u2019s confusion, widely shared, is that a “muscular” application of America\u2019s considerable powers, economic, military and political, is in America\u2019s interests in that it will perpetuate its world leadership. Muscle for Russia, muscle for Syria, Iran, China. So much muscle.<\/p>\n

Hillary is confused. Many pine for a great American nation. It simply isn\u2019t the America Hillary would lead. She is as confused about what the nation\u2019s great powers have accomplished as she is about what those powers can accomplish. She\u2019s confused about what lies at the basis of America\u2019s claim to greatness. Hillary is a greatness-through-power advocate. <\/p>\n

Two things are obvious. Power advocates think America is losing its grip.
\n Hence, for example, Dan Twining\u2019s “A
\n blueprint for restoring American exceptionalism<\/a>” (FP, March 7, 2013)
\n an abject pr\u00e9cis of the extravagantly entitled “Setting
\n Priorities for American Leadership \u2013 A New National Security Strategy for the
\n United States<\/a>” (PUSA, March 2013). Of course, restoration isn\u2019t necessary
\n unless American greatness is going, going, gone. Hillary has the answer: \u201cJust
\n watch. We\u2019re going to be indispensable again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confusion of power advocates is this: America\u2019s greatness isn\u2019t eroding because its great powers are diminishing. It\u2019s great powers are diminishing because its greatness is ignored and is being lost. <\/p>\n

Illusions of Military Power, Past and Present<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i>America was held in check by peasants and foot soldiers in Korea and
\n defeated in Vietnam and Afghanistan. It was saved from similar defeat in Iraq
\n only by the intervention of Iran, which counseled the Iraqis to deny at the
\n last moment a SOFA to America\u2019s military. In each country America\u2019s politicians
\n and military leaders confused the national resistance of a people for something
\n else.<\/p>\n

Today air superiority over China and Russia is doubtful. Russian defensive
\n and offensive missile technology as well as its electronic warfare capacities
\n are superior. Insofar as the US banks on drones, robots, Boeing\u2019s phantom eye…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s “exceptionalism” is alive and well. It\u2019s resurfaced wearing a wig in current presidential politics. Clinton speaks about America the “indispensable” nation. It\u2019s high sounding fluff. What does it mean? Shall we take a stab? A crutch might be “indispensable” for a crippled man. Does Hillary Clinton have a cripple in mind? Who\u2019s crippled? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-274220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}