THE “EXCEPTIONAL” NATION

The origin of this phrase is a mystery to me. It wasn’t part of my programming in high school, so I am guessing that it was a title claimed by the United States after defeating the global threat posed by the German/Italian/Japanese forces. There were many countries fighting the same battle, and each country shares the same sense of pride (England, Canada, Russia, European resistance fighters, Australia, even China sacrificed enormously in the conflict, but it was only after the United States Military joined in that Victory was assured. Without denigrating the amazing courage of any of the participants, I wonder how this makes that country “exceptional”. Winston Churchill said it best when he quipped “you can count on the Americans to do the right thing, but only after exhausting all the alternatives”.

Another possibility for the “exceptional” qualification might be the industrial and manufacturing output. Compared to what the British empire was able to accomplish from one small island, I am singularly unimpressed. Besides, China has already taken the lead in this department.

Perhaps we are supposed to recognize the “exceptional” American “values” of justice, honesty and fair play. Their willingness to stand up for the oppressed of this world- defending freedom from tyranny- demonstrating peaceful, harmonious, communities as a shining example to other nations? I have to admit that when the world found out that helpless babies were being ripped out of incubators and left to die on the cold hospital floors in Kuwait a few years ago, it was the United States that had the moral courage to lead a coalition of civilized countries to drive the perpetrators back. With God’s help they were able to incinerate over 100,000 young men in less than a week, and thankfully only six coalition soldiers were lost (by accident, not in battle). Personally, the only thing that I find “exceptional” about this country is that the citizens can watch the carnage and mayhem that their government is inflicting on an otherwise reasonable world, and listen to their television pundits cheer about their “exceptional-ism” and believe what they hear. Perhaps they are all just ‘exceptionally’ gullible.