\u201dBy most measures, America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world…Think about it. Our military has no peer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nMost measures? Wrong. Take trade and investment, political, economic and cultural power relative to the rest of the world; take perceived legitimacy worldwide, take moral\/values and take adherence to international law – the U.S. is a shadow of what it was, say, 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
True, military it is second to none. But that is exactly the problem when you are getting weaker on all other indicators.<\/p>\n
\u201dAnd when a typhoon hits the Philippines, or girls are kidnapped in Nigeria, or masked men occupy a building in Ukraine \u2013 it is America that the world looks to for help.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nEven if it were true that the world sees the U.S. as the benign helper, Obama ought to have deplored that countries don\u2019t turn to the multilateral or regional institutions.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has, since Yugoslavia, done about everything it could to undermine the U.N. Later he says that \u201dthe UN provides a platform to keep the peace in states torn apart by conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
But is it that<\/em> really the task of the world\u2019s normatively most important organisation: to make peace where others, including the U.S. itself, has ravaged countries?<\/p>\nThe U.S. as a great helper is not a perception shared by many enlightened people – see the failure in the Israel-Palestinian mediation and the handling of Syria. Btw. he doesn\u2019t even mention the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe United States is the one indispensable nation. That has been true for the century passed, and will likely be true for the century to come.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWhat in effect Obama is saying here is that every other nation – peoples of the earth – can<\/em> be dispensed with. Why offend everybody? Why make yourself so good that it becomes pathetic, laughable?<\/p>\nAnd 100 years more? Just how stupid do the speechwriters in the White House think we are? Regrettably, there is more where it comes from:<\/p>\n
\u201dThe question we face \u2013 the question you will face \u2013 is not whether America will lead, but how we will lead, not just to secure our peace and prosperity, but also to extend peace and prosperity around the globe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe obsession with leadership that goes through his speech reveals a deep fear of not being a leader for much longer.<\/p>\n
But people with little sense of history and young West Point patriots may believe such nonsense – including the stated but unfounded unity between America\u2019s and the world\u2019s peace and prosperity. And peace is extended from the U.S. – it is not something we create together.<\/p>\n
\u201dRegional aggression that goes unchecked \u2013 in southern Ukraine, the South China Sea, or anywhere else in the world \u2013 will ultimately impact our allies, and could draw in our military.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nHere Obama ignores the brilliant opportunity to reach out as a true world leader would to Russia and China at this important moment. And who can talk convincingly about what aggression<\/em> is and how unacceptable it is?<\/p>\n\u201dHere\u2019s my bottom line: America must always lead on the world stage. If we don\u2019t, no one else will.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nAgain the leadership obsession – \u201dmust always<\/em> lead\u201d. \u201dIf we don\u2019t, no one else will\u201d – well, that could be a much much better world for all humankind! But President Obama believes that only the U.S. can<\/em> lead.<\/p>\nIt is extremely interesting that he does not see the obvious coming: the multipolar world where others contribute in leading the world.<\/p>\n
One can only wonder how amused the people to be lead by Washington the next century in Beijing, Moscow, Delhi, Cape Town, Bras\u00edlia and other capitals around the world find this?<\/p>\n
\u201dFirst, let me repeat a principle I put forward at the outset of my presidency: the United States will use military force, unilaterally if necessary, when our core interests demand it \u2013 when our people are threatened; when our livelihood is at stake; or when the security of our allies is in danger.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nGone is suddenly the idea of common interests and action with allies. When U.S. interests are at stake – like they were in the \u201dmistake\u201d called Iraq – the U.S. will do what it has always done: Use the hammer.<\/p>\n
\u201dFor the foreseeable future, the most direct threat to America at home and abroad remains terrorism. But a strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is na\u00efve and unsustainable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWhat criteria does the intellectuals in his White House team use to conclude that terrorism is the largest threat?<\/p>\n
Any 10-year old child could tell about other things to worry about – nuclear weapons, global warming, poverty, cyber warfare, emerging fascism, etc. It hasn\u2019t got anything to do with reality but with his next sentence: \u201dI am calling on Congress to support a new Counter-Terrorism Partnerships Fund of up to $5 billion\u201d. On top of history\u2019s largest security budget? Enough is never enough!<\/p>\n
President Obama goes on to justify drone warfare and liquidation of presumed terrorists without trial without even noticing that fighting terrorism<\/em> and killing terrorists<\/em> are two vitally different things.<\/p>\nAnd then he squares the circle for the umpteenth time:<\/p>\n
\u201dIn taking direct action, we must uphold standards that reflect our values. That means taking strikes only when we face a continuing, imminent threat, and only where there is near certainty of no civilian casualties. For our actions should meet a simple test: we must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nOK, I\u2019d like to believe that from today everything will be done differently from every day since 9\/11. But I can\u2019t. It is not credible.<\/p>\n
Then comes yet another unbearable self-praise:<\/p>\n
\u201dIn Ukraine, Russia\u2019s recent actions recall the days when Soviet tanks rolled into Eastern Europe. But this isn\u2019t the Cold War. Our ability to shape world opinion helped isolate Russia right away. Because of American leadership, the world immediately condemned Russian actions. Europe and the G-7 joined with us to impose sanctions. NATO reinforced our commitment to Eastern European allies. The IMF is helping to stabilize Ukraine\u2019s economy. OSCE monitors brought the eyes of the world to unstable parts of Ukraine. This mobilization of world opinion and institutions served as a counterweight to Russian propaganda, Russian troops on the border, and armed militias.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWhat is the relevance of those Cold War tanks today if we are not living in the Cold War?<\/p>\n
As a world leader he takes no responsibility for the U.S. neo-conservatives around him who contributed to creating the crisis in the first place, neither of all the confrontational initiatives taken by the U.S. and NATO.<\/p>\n
There is no space in his world for the praise of those who like Germany have helped mitigate the crisis and calm down quite hotheaded U.S. rhetorics and confrontational policies.<\/p>\n
On Iran:<\/p>\n
\u201dWe built a coalition that imposed sanctions on the Iranian economy, while extending the hand of diplomacy to the Iranian government. Now, we have an opportunity to resolve our differences peacefully. The odds of success are still long, and we reserve all options to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.<\/em><\/p>\nNot a word about the remarkable elections and new political leadership in Iran or that it is Iran that has gone, repeatedly, the extra mile. No, it was all<\/em> shaped by the U.S.<\/p>\nAnd to be maximum counterproductive and showing off military instead of intellectual power he states that all options are reserved – read bombing Iran – while very delicate negotiations are going on. Was it really necessary to say that again, Mr. President?<\/p>\n
\u201dI believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it\u2019s our willingness to affirm them through our actions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nConsider the falseness of this statement. Washington’s ability to flout has, for decades, been second to none.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, President Obama again offends all other people around the world by saying that they<\/em> don\u2019t affirm international norms and the rule of law since they are not exceptional (or are exceptional only for their evil doings).<\/p>\nNow to human rights, dignity, democracy and American idealism! Please read the next two paras together:<\/p>\n
\u201dThe fourth and final element of American leadership: our willingness to act on behalf of human dignity. America\u2019s support for democracy and human rights goes beyond idealism \u2013 it\u2019s a matter of national security. Democracies are our closest friends, and are far less likely to go to war. Free and open economies perform better, and become markets for our goods. Respect for human rights is an antidote to instability, and the grievances that fuel violence and terror \/…\/<\/em><\/p>\nIn Egypt, we acknowledge that our relationship is anchored in security interests \u2013 from the peace treaty with Israel, to shared efforts against violent extremism. So we have not cut off cooperation with the new government. But we can and will persistently press for the reforms that the Egyptian people have demanded.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nIntellectually and morally this does not make sense. One, the idealist struggle for human rights can not be subordinate to national security. Secondly, Abdel al-Sisi, heading for the Presidency these very hours, is a military junta leader with rampant repression and death penalties in the hundreds on top of his agenda.<\/p>\n
Here Obama puts the security argument before the ethics and applies the both\/and principle of having no principles. This is not – moral – leadership. It’s profit-making militarism.<\/p>\n
What the speech lacks – and the audacity of fear<\/strong><\/p>\nThese are some of the things President Obama wants us to know and believe. But he simply isn\u2019t able to convince. His muddled speech is offending to the rest of the world and every moral principle.<\/p>\n
Had any other leader spoken like this Western media commentaries would say that here speaks a dangerous nationalist<\/em>.<\/p>\nWhat is conspicuously lacking<\/em> in the President\u2019s West Point speech?<\/p>\n\n- Any reasonably accurate appraisal of the world and the role of other nations.<\/li>\n
- A sense of humility and respect for allies and other countries in this world.<\/li>\n
- Every element of a grand strategy for America, for its foreign and security policy and some kind of vision of what a better world would look like. This speech with all its tired, self-aggrandising rhetorics is a thin cover-up for the fact that there is no such vision or overall strategy.<\/li>\n
- Some little hint of reforms of existing institutions or new thinking about globalisation and global democratic decision-making.<\/li>\n
- Ideas and initiatives – stretched-out hands – to help the world move towards conflict-resolution in crisis areas such as Ukraine, Syria, Libya, China-Japan and Iran. Not a trace of creativity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
In short – it lacks the essence and practice of exactly the leadership Obama mistakenly believes he and the U.S. today stand for.<\/p>\n
In its reality-defying arrogance and self-praise it leaves little hope for those of us who have always been fascinated by the American cultural and other creativity and – earlier – leadership while loathed its empire\u2019s arrogance, exceptionalist militarism and insensitivity to the victims of its policies.<\/p>\n
The audacity of hope<\/em> is crushed. Regrettably, with this speech one has to think more in terms of the audacity of fear<\/em> to begin to perceive the potentially catastrophic combination of militarism, hubris, a decreasing sense of reality and silly self-praise.<\/p>\n___________________________<\/p>\n
TFF Director Prof. Jan Oberg is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.<\/em><\/p>\nGo to Original \u2013 icontact-archive.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s speech can be analysed as both offending to the rest of us and – exceptionally – weak. It caused no enthusiasm among the future army officers he spoke to and no enthusiasm among leading Western media. I will argue that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}