Paul Grenier
Does America always live up to its ideals? If by American ideals we mean human rights and the rule of law, then the obvious answer would be “no.”
In the very recent past, as the Senate Report on Torture reveals, such ideals were massively violated at Guantanamo Bay and at various black sites all over the world. But they were also violated during America’s dirty wars in Central America; and during the Phoenix Program in Vietnam; and during America’s blood-stained imperial conquest of the Philippines. And of course, still earlier, during America’s violation of countless treaties with its native peoples …
That is the obvious answer. But America’s apologists have at hand a more subtle, a more “Hegelian” answer: despite some occasional hiccups, America is always in the process of fulfilling its march toward universal freedom.
Critics may condemn America for its imperial war against the Philippines, for example, and the resulting deaths by starvation, disease or gunfire of more than 200,000 Filipinos. But by vastly strengthening American commercial power in the Far East, that war ultimately proved progressive. It furthered the cause, they will say, of freedom in the world.
Jumping forward a century brings us to the Iraq War, the legality of which, shall we say, is not at all obvious. How many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have suffered death, dismemberment or displacement is not exactly clear. What is clear is that the figure is very large.
But from the neoconservative position, which, as it turns out, is indistinguishable from the “liberal” position of President Barack Obama, the Iraq War in no way calls into question America’s moralgrandeur, its preeminent position of moral leadership in the world.
“[E]ven in Iraq,” President Obama told the world during his recent speech in Brussels, “America sought to work within the international system.” What is more, “We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people.”