fearlesshistory

What is it that makes America unique? What makes the idea of “American Exceptionalism” plausible?

Some suggest it is our consumer-oriented lifestyle. I would have to disagree, since the English were far more adept at being commercial, and being consumers, for centuries before America was a country in and of itself. English consumerism fueled the African slave trade, afterall - more labor to feed England’s addiction to tobacco, cotton, and rum filled the Spanish Main and North America with literally millions of Africans. Therefore, American’s love of inexpensive goods or purchasing luxury is hardly a new thing under the sun.

Others may suggest it is the American military that makes it unique. Again, history does not support this line of reasoning. Not until World War Two did America even aspire to be more than a semi-regional power and, at the turn of the 20th century, Chile had a more powerful navy than the United States. In fact, were it not for the mutual devastation of World War Two, Germany and Great Britain would have far outstripped the United States - for instance, if Trenton, New Jersey or Detroit, Michigan had felt the devastation of firebombing as Dresden, Germany or the terror of “The Blitz” as London did, then the United States would have not had the manufacturing capacity that it did in 1945. A subset of these arguments is that American ingenuity prevailed in World War Two, but I hasten to remind those people that Germany, again, far outstripped the United States inventing the jet engine, self-guided rockets, the assault rifle, and the Japanese were equally crafty, turning scrap steel into battleships and air craft carriers that were newer and superior to those the United States had in its arsenal. In the Cold War it was the Soviet Union that was the first into space and the first to send a living being into space; ingenuity and creativity are not solely and American trait.

No, indeed, none of the physical or economic manifestations of the American Empire are unique in the history of the world; empires and hegemonies have risen and fallen on the strength of their arms and the power of their economies since the dawn of time. What, then, maked the United States unique among the nations of the world.

Character.

In the history of the world, there had never been a nation devoted tot he ideals of democracy, equality, the rule of law, and freedom before 1776 CE. Democracy, from the Greek words demos meaning “people” and cratia meaning “power” was “invented” in ancient Greece, but only citizens of Athens who owned large parcels of land were allowed to participate; huge segments of the population, even free Athenian artisans were excluded from voting. Republic, from the Latin res publica meaning “owned by the public (people)” was closer in that all Roman citizens were allowed to vote during the Roman Republic, but Roman citizenship was not something you were born into, usually, and could very easily overlook the poor, women, and other large segments of society. And in both cases, neither civilization had written down its commitment to humanistic ideals in a written constitution.

So, when former President George W Bush and the other political pundits referred to the “American way of life” at the outset of the War on Terror , they were referring to the ideals of modern Democracy in which all peoples - regardless of race, creed, color, economics, or crime - were protected under the law. During the War on Terror, however, the desire to lash out in pain and rage overcame our better nature and our better judgment. By sanctioning “extraordinary rendition,” opening Guantanamo Bay, participating in “enhanced interrogation techniques,” and encouraging “softening up” prisoners such as in Abu Ghraib, we as a people stepped upon a slippery slope where one wrong justified thousands and morality was put into a small box and locked away - a victim of the expediency of war. But, as we were reminded by President Obama on inauguration day, being moral and lawful is most necessary during our trials and tribulations - for how else can we truly say what we are as a people?

For further proof that it is our Constitutional ideals that separate us from the rest of the world, during the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine was engaged in a fierce debate with French intellectuals such as Guillaume Raynal, Michel  de Crèvecœur, and (later) Alexis de Tocqueville on what it meant to be “American” and why ideals were so important both through his pamphlet Common Sense and through personal correspondence. To Paine, it was the American ideals of liberty and equal protection under the law that made the “American Experience” unique and an important boon to the world. It was the American example that would later partially influence the French Revolution. American principles of morality were the basis of President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points declaration and are what kept America from treating prisoners of war the way that the Japanese, Germans, and even Russians did during World War Two - no death marches, starvation, denial of medical care, or summary executions (with some notable exceptions).

But, during the War on Terror somehow those principles were ignored under the expediency of a “new kind of warfare” calling for a new kind of doing business. Such a proposition is reflected in many right-wing, conservative reactions to the rightful closing of “Gitmo,” some (illustrated) examples follow:

What these and other critics fail to realize is that America is not more “safe” with Guantanamo Bay open - in fact, it has actually made America less safe and here’s why:

Muslims in the Arab world have typically been subject to tyrannical, authoritarian rule; Egyptian dissenters (and even common criminals) are subject to routine beatings, torture, and deprivation of food and sleep. Saudi “criminals” are more likely to be people who have stopped believing in Islam (or been caught practicing Judaism or Christianity) as they are to be thieves or murderers. Syrian dissenters are often tortured or detained indefinitely. Iraqi citizens (under Saddam Hussein) were often beaten and tortured - remember the infamous “rape rooms” of Abu Ghraib and the early insurgency? In the popular belief of the “Arab street” (that is, the Arab public) is that the only reason that their leaders are in power is because the United States is keeping them in power. They tended to scoff at the idea that America would act morally for, if it did, how could they support authoritarian regimes? When the United States abrogated its duties under both treaty and ideals, it merely gave credence to those Arab conspiracy theorists who believed that American ideals were naught but a mask we wore to make ourselves feel superior. When the United States suspended Geneva conventions and the rule of law in order to “detain” prisoners, the leadership knew it was wrong and - in true lawyerly fashion - sought a semantic way around the rule of law (why else was Guantanamo Bay chosen? Why not the Mojave? Or Death Valley? Or re-opening Alcatraz?), it merely added ammunition and talking points to the al Qaeda recruitment rhetoric.

Additionally, in complete disagreement with Alan Dershowitz and the farcical series “24,”torture does not work. First of all, any torture the United States could inflict on a suspected criminal is nothing that a hard-bitten terrorist has not withstood before. Ayman Al Zawahiri, for example, was jailed for decades in an Egyptian prison where he was routinely treated to a “workout session” with guards. Typical “workout sessions” in Egypt consist of the prisoner handing by his wrists (usually handcuffs that cut into their flesh) and punched, kicked, or clubbed all about the body (and especially the genitals). If he was able to survive that, then what use is torture. Additionally, when we see Jack Bauer tied to a chair and menaced by a swarthy-looking guy with a funny accent, we admire his “iron resolve” and cheer when he bites their jugular to escape - if Jack won’t spill the beans, what makes us think that “Yusuf” would? Also, torture doesn’t work because there is no guarantee that a) you got the right guy or b) that even if he is the “right guy” that he would have any information to divulge or c) that the information he’d divulge would be “actionable.” What torture advocates don’t understand is that it is in the human nature to say anything in order to stop the pain - the Papacy banned the use of torture during the Spanish Inquisition for the same reasons, as did the French after the so-called “Battle of Algiers.” On top of that, by asking - or perhaps requiring - one human to torture another, the damage done to the torturer’s psyche is morally repugnant; either you’ve taken a normal, well-adjusted person and induced him to inflict great bodily pain or fear of death in another person, thus causing the person to become unbalanced by indulging in his base, animalistic, barbaric urges OR you are hiring sociopathic personalities who are not burdened by “morality” and who could, potentially, turn on their employers when given more money or other inducements. For example, the North Vietnamese - when fighting against the French in the 1950’s - were certain that the French had infiltrated their ranks (based on “captured” intelligence) and so systematically went through their ranks, torturing suspects; eventually even highly-regarded agents who had engaged in torture of their compatriots found themselves on the receiving end of the tender mercies of interrogators because no matter how hard they tried, the North Vietnamese could not find the “traitor.” As it turned out, the French had not infiltrated the North Vietnamese insurgency, but had merely planted the doubt that the system had been compromised and so all that torture had done nothing but distract the North Vietnamese.

In short, what makes America special - what makes us unapologetic for our way of life - is our ideals. Our ideals pave the way for American influence, power, and our “way of life.” Our Ideals set us apart from the rest of the world and provide a beacon of light for the rest of the world to follow.

If we are willing to give up those ideals, even for a moment, then who are we? WHAT are we?

———————Resources——————

Alan M Dershowitz  Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge  (Yale University Press, 2003)

A. Vincent “A PIONEER WITH A DIFFERENCE: THOMAS PAINE AND EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES” in European Contributions to American Studies 43 (1999)

J. Romero “THE AMERICAN HALF-CENTURY IN EUROPE” in European Contributions to Americna Studies 57 (2004)

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