Letters to the Editor Policy

Exceptional Hubris

At the recent C-PAC convention, a stable of prospective GOP Presidential candidates put their highest emphasis on something called "American Exceptionalism," and on President Obama's alleged insufficient embrace of it. Of course, whether this is a useful thing depends on what is mean by the term.

On the positive side, a good definition can be found in the word of John Adams: "I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scheme and design in providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the Earth." Also relevant is Lincoln's succinct reference to America as "the last, best hope" of humanity.

But when I read or hear people tout American Exceptionalism these days, I have a sick feeling that noble sentiments like these are not what's in their hearts. In an earlier age, America had to endure the "My Country, Right or Wrong" crowd, but nowadays it's even worse - the zealots are demanding that America is never wrong at all. Rick Santorum pandered to them when he recently "refudiated" those who have the temerity to believe that America is not perfect. Yes it is!

To some, American Exceptionalism is scarcely more than hubris. It's about America being great principally because "I was born here!" As a moral standpoint it's no more meritorious than Borat singing, "Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world!" I suspect he'd insist on Kazakhstani Exceptionalism, but I'm not impressed.

There's also in Exceptionalism an element of conceit that we're the Big Bad US, we do whatever we want, and we don't have to pay any heed to what the rest of the world thinks. This is an attitude characteristic of the Neanderthal Right. It's sad that they not only don't care a whit about being good neighbors to the rest of the world, they not only fail to see how foolish and counterproductive an attitude that is, but they also think they're the sole essence of patriotism. Perhaps if they'd learn something about the country they tout, they'd realize the Founders did not share their heedless arrogance. The Declaration of Independence after all was written out of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." But perhaps that's just Liberal wimpishness.

Rather than Exceptionalism, this attitude can be called Exemptionalism instead. As in: We're exempt from those international standards the rest of the world generally follows, standards we were instrumental in shaping. That attitude is a big reason why the rest of the world sometimes resents us, and with good reason.

Of course, my pointing out the dark side of Exceptionalism and my rejection of their hubris merely brands me as unpatriotic in their eyes. But chauvinistic and jingoistic pseudo-patriotism like theirs does America no favors.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA

At A Loss

I am at a loss. Can you imagine that some people think our country is for sale?

The thing that bothers me is that Egypt was controlled by a dictator in a half democracy, sort of. The rich got richer and the do gooders got richer too.

For American businessmen, who are very rich, to think our country is for sale is treason! I think they should use their money to keep America strong and not to drag our people down. Can you imagine, what if they get control and sell us to, say, China. What if only the rich use their power of the dollar to control the world, live anywhere that they want and use the rest of us as slaves. I hope the American citizens don't let that happen. I hope we continue to keep our democracy.

Did I read that Tricky Ricky (Santorum) is going to run for office again? My opinion is we need fair elections to keep our democracy healthy.

Sincerely,

Peter A. Seman

Thompson, PA

Today’s School Systems

One only has to look at our local school district to see why students today rank so far behind many foreign students. When you count all the 2-hour delay starts it amounts to approximately 10 to 12 hours of lost education. This adds up to at least 2 days of school each year. Then they dismiss the students one hour early each Friday - why? This adds up to 35 hours of schooling or approximately 6 days total. This lost time does not have to be made up. The losers are the students, the winners are the teachers.

Sincerely,

Peter Moxen

New Milford, PA

The American Imperium

It's grand theater. Three plays, a trilogy of dramas brimming with intrigue, assassinations, shady dealings with equally shady characters, and unexpected endings. The spectacles are the hallmarks of the American Imperium and its chief enforcer, the CIA.

The trilogy opens with the 1990 production in Panama starring Manuel Noriega. This was followed in 2000 by a remake in Iraq featuring Saddam Hussein. The last play, about the current Egyptian revolution, casts Hosni Mubarak in the leading role. It is a work in progress.

The CIA's man in Panama was Manuel Noriega. He is the most notorious graduate of the infamous School for Dictators, officially, the School of the Americas. His thirty-year sojourn with the CIA began in the '50s. He was the intelligence agency's listening post for the Castro regime and the leftist rule of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. But the CIA had a bigger part for Noriega.

Omar Torrijos was the dictator of Panama but lacked the CIA's requisite compliancy. He was killed in a suspicious plane cash in 1981. Panama’s former ambassador to Peru is convinced that the cash was caused by a bomb planted in the ill-fated plane by the CIA. In any case, two years after Torrijos' death, Noriega took his turn as Panama's dictator.

From the beginning, it was a love/hate relationship. The CIA loved him. Noriega was useful as an arms conduit to the Nicaragua rightests - the Contras, providing training facilities for CIA operations, and bases for spy planes.

The CIA hated him. Noriega was suspected of being a double agent for both Castro, and Daniel Ortega, a former Sandinista guerrilla leader and president of Nicaragua. Why take chances? The CIA's “rent-a-colonel” had to go.

The intelligence agency knew about Noriega's drug trafficking for years. It was never an obstacle for their chumminess, but that was then. Now it became the pretense for a U.S. invasion of Panama.

Noriega was captured, detained as a prisoner of war (of all things), tried on racketeering, drug trafficking, and money laundering. He was sentenced to 30 years. This was reduced to 17 years for good behavior. His sentence ended in 2007. Nevertheless, Noriega remains incarcerated. He is the man who knows too much.

Play No. 2 changes location to the Mideast. There was trouble afoot in Iraq. CIA involvement was predictable.

The Iraqi monarchy was overthrown in 1958 in a coup headed by General Abd Qasim. The general intended to nationalize the foreign oil consortium and return control of the oilfields to Iraq. (Big mistake.) Nationalization was a policy beneficial for the Iraqi people but baneful for the U.S.

The CIA's man in Baghdad was Saddam Hussein. The young Hussein played a key role in the CIA supported Qasim revolution in 1963. He rose rapidly through the ranks eventually achieving total power in 1979.

It was in that year that Iraq's issues with Iran meshed with the CIA's agenda: Hussein wanted to settle a border dispute; the CIA wanted to depose the Islamic government. Ergo: A war. The U.S. supported Iraq with money, weaponry, intelligence, and training.

Surprisingly, Hussein lost the war and U.S. support. He had fallen from grace and climbed the gallows. His execution in 2006 ended his decades-long association with the CIA.

Play No. 3 moves east to the land of the pharaohs, Egypt. The current dust-up in the Mideast has a shock of U.S. supported dictators looking for the exit door. Egypt is in the eye of the political maelstrom.

The CIA's man in Cairo was Hosni Mubarak. An accomplished kleptocract, Mubarak, in his thirty-year pharaonic reign, amassed a fortune estimated to be as much as $70 billion. And this in a nation where the per capita income is $100 a week.

Mubarak is an intelligent, well-spoken goon in a custom-tailored suit. His regime is marred by crushing oppression, unlawful imprisonment, and inquisitorial torture. But now that the veil of respectability has been torn away, the U.S. - after supporting Mubarak for thirty years - in an act of appalling hypocrisy, pleas for democratic reforms.

If the U.S. were sincere, it would have given the Egyptian army an ultimatum: support the people and oust the tyrant or lose the annual $1.3 billion in U.S. aid for the army. It has not done so. Instead it maneuvered to have the Egyptian vice president secede Mubarak. A cynical stratagem that would replace one thug with another thug.

Fate has yet to write the conclusion to this play. But in the shadowy realm of covert ops where legal and illegal are undefined, the CIA will continue to use every means to pen the final scene. As Kissinger said, “Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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