blatham wrote:Traumatized by the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, Americans very naturally reacted by falling back on old patterns of belief and behavior. Among these patterns has been American nationalism. This nationalism embodies beliefs and principles of great and permanent value for America and the world, but it also contains very great dangers. Aspects of American nationalism imperil both the nation's global leadership and its success in the struggle against Islamist terrorism and revolution.
More than any other factor, it is the nature and extent of this nationalism which at the start of the twenty-first century divides the United States from a largely postnationalist Western Europe. Certain neoconservative and Realist writers have argued that American behavior in the world and American differences with Europe stem simply from the nation's possession of greater power and responsibility. It would be truer to say that this power enables America to do certain things. What it does, and how it reacts to the behavior of others, is dictated by America's political culture, of which different strands of nationalism form a critically important part.
Insofar as American nationalism has become mixed up with a chauvinist version of Israeli nationlism, it also plays an absolutely disastrous role in U.S. relations with the Muslim world and in fueling terrorism. One might say, therefore, that while America keeps a splendid and welcoming house, it also keeps a family of demons in its cellar. Usually kept under certain restraints, these demons were released by 9/11...
This book seeks to help explain why a country which after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had the chance to create a concert of all the world's major states - including Muslim ones - against Islamist revolutionary terrorism chose instead to pursue policieis which divided the West, further alienated the Muslim world and exposed America itself to greatly increased danger. The most important reason why this has occurred is the character of American nationalism, which in this book I analyze as a complex, multifacted set of elements in the nation's political culture....
Under the administration of George W. Bush the United States drove toward empire, but the domestic political fuel fed into the engine was that of a wounded and vengeful nationalism. After 9/11, this sentiment is entirely sincere as far as most Americans are concerned, and it is all the more dangerous for that. In fact, to judge by world history, there is probably no more dangerous element in the entire nationalist mix than a sense of righteous victimhood. In the past this sentiment helped wreck Germany, Serbia and numerous other countries, and it is now in the process of wrecking Israel.
(Introduction...page 1-4)
There is nothing particularly insightful or even unique in this introduction.
As the author acknowledges, an increase in nationalism is a perfectly understandable reaction within a country which has sustained a violent attack within its borders. To the extent that an increase in Nationalism in a country is a perilous trend, the peril of US nationalism blankets the world only because of the country's power. Should Nationalism run rampant in Chad, I doubt the author will be devoting a book to the topic.
Assuming the author's premise is correct, this introduction (as with so many other commentaries from the Left) implies that the US has some sort of obligation to refrain from a kind of response that would be natural to the rest of the world, and blaze an entirely unbeaten and entirely theoretical path.
Such an argument might make sense in the face of alleged assertions that Americans (neo-con or otherwise) believe their country to have a manifest destiny born of unique position and character, except that it is always made (as it is here) by persons who find such assertions, at best, unsophisticated.
It's ironic that so much of the criticism directed at the US is based on its promise. It is even more ironic when those who are derisive of America's claims to greatness, find fault it its inability to perfectly manifest that greatness.
That America is, by all definitions, the most enlightened world power in history should not be in question. That there is nothing particularly attractive about crowing this fact should also not be in question, however the latter does not invalidate the former. Would that America were perfect, (Lord knows the world has long ago given up on Europe for such stellar leadership, and never considered Canada in the mix), but, alas, it is not. I've yet to progress through this thread, but it will be interesting to see if blatham's excerpts reveal an author who offers up a unique perspective and constructive advice, or simply more of the tired old hash.
<falls off his chair with laughter, gets back on and starts applauding> 