You know, just in case you have not heard yet, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report recently that shows that CIA agents used questionable methods of interrogation that some feel are effectively torture. If you remember, the Bush administration had some controversial positions on such methods, going to extraordinary lengths to define what could be constituted as torture, and what was not. They also went to similar lengths to try and make an exception to the Geneva Convention requirements of affording prisoners of war with basic rights and standards of living, by terming them as "enemy combatants," as if regular prisoners of war from conventional opposing armies could not be termed as enemy combatants. committed
The result, of course, was that during the Bush years, we bean practicing what some would define as torture. We also opened up concentration camps (although not outright on American soil) and knowingly handed over some prisoners to nations that do permit torture in order to obtain information. Of course, there were well documented incidents of abuse and psychological torture with the Abu Ghraib prison camp in Iraq that served as a major embarrassment for the United States. All of this, to say nothing of the actual deaths and injuries that came with the wars that we waged on two nations simultaneously, which included an estimated 100,000 plus Iraqi civilians killed.
In any case, it was shown by this report that the methods used by the CIA actually were not very effective, and that more humane methods actually tended to consistently get better and more useful information.
Still, some people that I know feel no need for these practices by the CIA to change, and seem to reject any suggestions or reports that these methods do not work that way that they would like them to. They have no problem with Americans torturing prisoners of war...er, I mean, "enemy combatants,", yet they probably scratch their heads and wonder why westerners caught by terror groups seem to systematically behead their prisoners in the most gruesome way possible, with small knives that take much more time to do the job, then with swords and more conventional means.
Now, much of the rest of the world is highly critical of these human rights abuses by American officials, and this is particularly true of nations that the United States has pointed the finger at for human rights abuses.
Americans, of course, are incensed. But then again, why wouldn't these nations do that? After all, when we go ahead and practice what we long preached against, all while continuing to view ourselves as the "beacon of freedom" and the "leader of the free world," some people are going to catch on to the hypocrisy that Americans make a habit of somehow missing. So, how can we be surprised when a criminal state like North Korea, for example, suddenly take a high and mighty tone and criticize the United States for human rights abuses? Any wonder that Russia would blast the United States for the same? Remember, Russia in part deflected criticism of its role in Ukraine by simply mentioning America's own invasion of Iraq a decade and change ago. Don't they have a point?
This is part of what happens when you subscribe to the notion of "American exceptionalism," this crazy idea that, somehow, Americans are exempt from the rules that govern human beings literally the world over. When American officials are exempted from possible prosecution against charges of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity," yet we blast the human rights records of other nations, why wouldn't nations like Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China jump on the opportunity to turn the tables on us?
There are some strange distinctions that the United States truly does stand out in. Things that make us stand out like a sore thumb, and far too often, these are not things to be proud of. We were, for a very long time, far and away the most polluting nation in the world. China recently took over that role, but remember that it has 1 billion people more than we have, which means that it has well over four times our population, and that means that, per person, we are still the most polluting nation in the world. There were several international environmental treaties that the U.S. refused to sign. We also are the only industrialized nation that fails to afford affordable, universal healthcare for its people, a dubious distinction that, yet again, Americans seem to conveniently ignore or sugar coat. The United States joined only Somalia as the only two nations that refused to ratify an international treaty recognizing the rights of children. It was one of less than ten countries to fail to ratify an international treaty to end discrimination against women. It was one of the countries that failed to sign an international treaty against landmines, joining China and Russia with this dubious distinction. It again failed to sign another international treaty cracking down on cluster munitions, after a massive outcry on the human toll that resulted. It did not join an international effort to afford rights to persons with disabilities, one of a very few nations not to do so.
And, of course, we get to the issue of torture. Rather predictably, the U.S. failed to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which was signed by a great many nations that we at least traditionally viewed as allies. In fact, we went the other direction, against the wind, against the spirit of the age.
I have said this before, but I think a part of this was the collective spirit when it comes to war experiences. Remember, many of the European countries that were so opposed to the American invasion of Iraq had themselves gone through war on their own soil. World War I devastated Europe like nothing before had, and that was followed up a generation later by an even more devastating war that left much of Europe in rubble.
But the American experience was of fighting the war from afar, playing the role of heroic liberators, and emerging as the world's leading superpower. Nations that the U.S. helped to liberate should feel grateful, especially those that received assistance in rebuilding through the Marshall Plan. However, that does not mean that these nations should systematically support every American action indefinitely, no matter what. When countries are strongly opposed to an invasion of a sovereign nation, they have every right to hold those viewpoints, and criticize the United States for imposing war. Besides, as it turned out, they were right. The war in Iraq was a big mistake, and it cost us plenty. They were being true friends by trying to help us from making a big mistake, but we were too stuck up to listen.
Yet, I get the feeling that we are repeating history. Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea all criticized our methods that they feel, with some justification, constitute torture and human rights violations. But most Americans do not seem troubled by any of this. Life goes on, as usual. These nations also echoed something in common, which was a skepticism that any real charges or indictments would come from this report, and suggested that the report came out for political reasons. That a Democratic White House and Senate released this report as kind of an answer to their recent political defeat in the last election, to gain a bit of leverage, and to make Republicans squirm by saying, "See! We told you they were wrong!"
But will anything change? Are any of the perpetrators going to be charged, let alone indicted?
Don't hold your breath.
Are we, as a nation, ever going to get over ourselves and recognize that we are a part of the wider world, and should not view ourselves as automatically exempt from the realities that govern the rest of the world, simply because we call ourselves Americans?
Again, don't hold your breath.
Change may come slowly around the world, but change does come, it seems. Not always for the better.
We have even seen change here in the United States, where we keep losing our footing as the world's leading superpower.
Yet, the more things change, the more things stay the same. And unfortunately, here in the United States, the one constant is the arrogance of an imperial power. The presumption of superiority, of exceptionalism. Domestically, we have grown incredibly sensitive to charges of racism and presumptions of entitlement and superiority from one group over others. But as a nation, we have collectively jumped on the notion that we as a nation are superior to all others, and that this entitles us to certain privileges. There is always a good reason for why we practice different things. Always some historical causes, or some cultural aspects that the rest of the world, we argue, simply cannot understand. Government officials in South Africa defending apartheid used the same argument.
There will come a time when we are forcibly stripped of this luxury of arrogance. I would have thought that that time has already come, with clear mistakes in dropping the bomb, on getting involved with dictatorships around the world, in stupid wars like Vietnam and Iraq, in environmental practices that not only have been detrimental to the health of the world, but have gotten much of the rest of the world to eye us with suspicion. We pat ourselves on the back for being a peaceful nation, yet we spend far, far more on the military then the next two dozen leading nations combined!
Collectively, we think nothing of bombing the hell out of other nations, and many do not challenge, nor are offended, when xenophobes suggest that we make this or that nation a parking lot, whether it is Iran in the eighties, Iraq in the nineties or last decade, or some other nation. Imagine that! A whole nation, including innocent women and children, many of whom are the same people that our government argues is oppressed and should be liberated, and we mindlessly talk about wiping them off the map! Many of these same people would, without any sense of irony, consider themselves good Christians. I knew one such "good Christian" who had left his anti-war granddaughter with something that he said, and he wanted to see my reaction. He then tried to shock me almost twelve years ago, in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, by saying that he could not wait to see images of Iraqi children burning. I told him that such a sentiment was very Christian, and he then himself stormed off. But what part of "Thou shall not kill" is hard to understand? How can we take such an ugly national pride in killing so many helpless others, anyway?
Yet, we wonder why so much of the rest of the world hates us? Really?
The only thing that makes us stand out as truly exceptionalism is in our stubborn refusal to learn from the lessons of the past, as well as the lessons that other nations provide. And we are paying the price for that stubbornness more and more over time. As we decline as a nation, we see living standards deteriorate, mostly as a product of electing untrustworthy people that wear their patriotism, and more often than not, their good solid religious values, on their sleeves, but proceed to cut funding for the poor, and give more to the rich. Our environmental policies are far too low, skepticism too high, and yet again, this comes as a gift to the rich and to corporations. We engage in war profiteering, and again, this profits corporations like Halliburton and oil companies, that in turn push us to go to war against oil rich nations. Those wars cost us hundreds of billions of dollars, even trillions of dollars, and somehow, despite the budget crises, we manage to fund these just fine, don't we? Instead of strengthening our hold and image around the world, it compromised us, and showed how weak we can be. It showed our vulnerabilities. We see our rights being compromised domestically, along with the overall quality of life. Salaries and benefits keep going down in real terms. We no longer are the world's leading economy, and people around the world are starting to view our own beliefs that we are the "leaders of the free world" and the "beacon of freedom" as a joke. Can you blame them?
Yes, as a nation, collectively, we are exceptional. Exceptionally stubborn. Whether this is willful, or simply ignorance, or some mixture of both, it is reaching a point where it is criminal, and can no longer be tolerated, because of all the harm that it is doing. All of those problems that I just listed, plus many more, can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to our stubborn desire to hear just how great we are, and that we are the envy of the world, even as that is becoming less true with each passing year. Standards of living in other countries are catching us and, in some cases, have surpassed us. This trend is the product of our superiority complex as a nation, our apparent need to always be the exception to the rule.
Will that trend end anytime soon?
Don't hold your breath.
Here is an article that I wrote for Guardian Liberty Voice about the subject of much of the rest of the world criticizing the U.S. for the practices of CIA operatives revealed by the Senate Intelligence Committee:
Human Rights Abuses by CIA Condemned Around World:
http://guardianlv.com/2014/12/human-rights-abuses-by-cia-condemned-around-world/
United States Ratification of International Human Rights Treaties published by Human Rights Watch, July 24, 2009:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/07/24/united-states-ratification-international-human-rights-treaties
China tells US to 'correct its ways' after torture report by AFP, December 10, 2014
http://news.yahoo.com/china-tells-us-correct-ways-torture-report-162311320.html
U.S. under fire over Senate's report on CIA torture by Bill Trott of Reuters, December 10, 2014
http://news.yahoo.com/u-under-fire-over-senates-report-cia-torture-183824892.html
Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture: The Senate report confirms it doesn’t work. As those of us on the inside knew. By MARK FALLON, December 8, 2014:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/torture-report-dick-cheney-110306.html#ixzz3LOLmVcZE
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