{"id":1453212,"date":"2024-01-19T07:02:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T07:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=310953"},"modified":"2024-01-19T07:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T07:02:28","slug":"the-dangerous-myth-of-the-indispensable-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/01\/19\/the-dangerous-myth-of-the-indispensable-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dangerous Myth of the \u201cIndispensable Nation\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
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Photo by Saad Alfozan<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\u201c<\/em>But if we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us. Our nation’s memory is long and our reach is far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, 1998.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the indispensable nation.\u00a0 American leadership is what holds the world together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 President Joe Biden, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is still…the \u2018indispensable nation’ in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013David Ignatius, Washington Post columnist, 2024.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is no better declarative indicator of American arrogance and hubris than the self-appointed title of \u201cindispensable nation.\u201d\u00a0 Liberal pundits and critics believe that the notion of the indispensable nation had its origins in the post-Cold War era following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.\u00a0 In actual fact, the ideological origins of the indispensable nation were \u201cpresent at the creation,\u201d if I can borrow the title of Secretary of State Dean Acheson\u2019s trenchant memoir.<\/p>\n

The idea of the unique international standing of the United States was part of the Founding Fathers\u2019 debate over our global role in 1789.\u00a0 Liberal pundits and critics argue that U.S. \u201cinternationalism\u201d was unique to twentieth-century diplomacy, but our notions of free commerce and liberal democracy were there at the outset.\u00a0 They cite former presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman in their discussion of \u201cinternationalism.\u201d\u00a0 But John Quincy Adams, arguing that America \u201cgoes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,\u201d envisioned the United States as a threat to Europe\u2019s autocratic regimes.\u00a0 Adams added that the \u201cinfluence of our example\u201d would \u201coverthrow them all without a single exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

The success of the Revolutionary War created a sense of American nationalism and internationalism that was manifested in our nineteenth-century wars against Britain (1812), Mexico (1846), and Spain (1898).\u00a0 The Constitution has little to say about war, peace, and diplomacy: Article I grants Congress the power to declare war; Article II grants the president the power to serve as commander-in-chief.\u00a0 But the Founding Fathers accepted George Washington\u2019s dictum that \u201cif you wish for peace, prepare for war.\u201d\u00a0 As early as 1783, Alexander Hamilton called for the drafting of our first national security strategy.<\/p>\n

Ignatius\u2019s notion that the United States is the \u201cindispensable nation\u201d in the Middle East is particularly naive.\u00a0 In reality, the Middle East is our briar patch.\u00a0 We have no influence over Israel, the region\u2019s superpower; we have been unable\u2014perhaps unwilling\u2014to reduce the misery suffered by innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank; and we have been unable to deter regional actors from using force despite our military presence.<\/p>\n

The United States and Israel are totally at odds on the post-war scenario; the idea of a two-state solution; the role of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza; and the role of the Arab states in the rebuilding of Gaza.\u00a0 President Biden\u2019s address on the 100th day of the Gaza war made no mention whatsoever of the more than 24,000 Palestinians who have been killed in the war, mostly women and children.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s decision to expand the war into the Red Sea last week was predictable in view of the naval deployments in the region, but it is unlikely to have any favorable impact on the actions and policies of Yemen and the Houthis.\u00a0 The U.S. and British attacks could lead to a wider war, however, that involves Hezbollah on Israel\u2019s northern border.\u00a0 On January 16, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards launched missiles at an Israeli intelligence facility in Iraq\u2019s Kurdistan region, not far from the U.S. consulate.<\/p>\n

More terrorism in the region is also likely.<\/p>\n

If there is one indispensable factor in this rapidly changing international environment, it is the need for global diplomacy and cooperation.\u00a0 The key international challenges involve strategic stability; the proliferation of conventional weaponry; international terrorism, and climate change. \u00a0There are no single indispensable nations in these difficult geopolitical challenges.\u00a0 We need skillful U.S. diplomacy and must stop resorting to such counter-productive bromides as the \u201cindispensable nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ultimate irony is that a nation that is so secure because of friendly borders north and south as well as protective oceans east and west has become so insecure.\u00a0 U.S. complicity with Israeli war crimes will compromise U.S. influence in other international situations, and the overwhelming evidence of Israeli genocide will create additional problems.\u00a0 The United States will not be helped by the comments of President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, all of whom dismissed the charges of genocide as \u201cmeritless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Biden administration wants Russia to follow the principles of international law in Ukraine, but has no stomach for getting Israel to do the same in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The post The Dangerous Myth of the \u201cIndispensable Nation\u201d<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biden\u2019s decision to expand the war into the Red Sea last week was predictable in view of the naval deployments in the region, but it is unlikely to have any favorable impact on the actions and policies of Yemen and the Houthis.\u00a0 The U.S. and British attacks could lead to a wider war, however, that involves Hezbollah on Israel\u2019s northern border.\u00a0 On January 16, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards launched missiles at an Israeli intelligence facility in Iraq\u2019s Kurdistan region, not far from the U.S. consulate. More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The Dangerous Myth of the \u201cIndispensable Nation\u201d<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,266],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1453212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456236,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453212\/revisions\/1456236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1453212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1453212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1453212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}