How Exceptional America Is by Eric Zuesse!
(2020-10-02 at 04:16:23 )

How Exceptional America Is by Eric Zuesse!

America is becoming exceptionally exceptional. In some votes at the United Nations General Assembly - the Assembly of nations - only Israel, or one or two other United States allies, vote along with it, and all others either vote against it, or else abstain in order to prevent United States retaliation against their own nation.

No other nation is anything like that.

In fact, on many occasions, the United States arm-twists other delegations in order to get them to abstain from voting so as to make less stark, and less embarrassing, the United States of Americas international isolation.

But the United States of America is also extraordinarily exceptional in other ways, which have nothing to do with the United Nations.

The United States of America is thus truly an exceptional nation.

As the Republican Party magazine National Review commented, on September 15th, "Last week, the United States and Israel were the only countries to vote against a General Assembly resolution on the global coronavirus response. Some have seized upon that vote to paint the United States as a bad faith actor that stands alone in the world." However, this vote was not about only "the global coronavirus response." It was - perhaps even more importantly - about United States sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Russia, China, and other countries that the United States regime considers to be its enemies. (None of these countries ever invaded or even threatened to invade America; all of those sanctions are 100% United States aggression.

These are target-countries that the United States of Americas aristocracy wants to take over. The worlds United States-sanctioned countries are marked in red on this map of the world.) Israel strongly supports sanctions against both Syria and Venezuela, and it routinely invades and bombs Syria, just for good measure. So, it joined Americas position on that.

That United Nations General Assembly vote was held on September 11th. Americas Associated Press bannered the following day, "United Nations assembly approves pandemic resolution; United States, Israel object", and reported that, "The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 169-2, with Ukraine and Hungary abstaining. It was a strong show of unity by the United Nations most representative body, though many countries had hoped for adoption by consensus." The AP further stated:

It calls on governments and international financial institutions "to provide more liquidity in the financial system, especially in all developing countries." It supports recovery plans that "drive transformative change towards more inclusive and just societies including by empowering and engaging all women and girls."

And it urges United Nations member nations "to adopt a climate- and environment-responsive approach to COVID-19 recovery efforts" including by aligning investments and domestic policies with the United Nations goals and the 2015 Paris agreement to combat climate change. ..

By a vote of 132-3, the assembly amended the resolution to urge all countries "to refrain from promulgating and applying any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that impedes the full achievement of economic and social development, particularly in developing countries."

The United States was then overwhelmingly defeated in attempts to remove two paragraphs from the resolution, one referring to womens rights to "sexual and reproductive health" and the other to "promoting global sustainable transport."

In addition to arguing against the language on sanctions, the United States opposed all references to the World Health Organization, which the Donald Trump administration stopped funding, accusing the United Nations agency of failing to do enough to stop the virus from spreading when it first surfaced in China.

Nowhere in the APs article was any mention made that in the "vote of 169-2," the two nations which had voted against the Resolution were the United States and Israel, but only that there had been "objections from the United States and Israel," regarding attachment, to the Resolution, of the Amendment that added the anti-sanctions provision to it. This omission was not an error. It is a type of omission that is common in propaganda. The United States of America was more isolated than that "news"-report made clear.

This vote was about only a "Resolution," a statement of the various nations values, to work toward, not about any nations policy, but the United States and Israel do not share those goals - not even rhetorically. This opposition to that Resolutions goals was truly exceptional.

In particular, nothing is more abhorrent to the United States regime than to stop or impede its sanctions. These sanctions include, for example, punishments against any company or government that will, in any way, assist in Russias 96% completed NordStream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany, for the EU to buy Russias pipelined natural gas instead of Americas fracked canned shipped natural gas.

The United States regime insists that EU nations buy the far costlier trans-Atlantic-shipped fracked United States liquefied natural gas (LNG).

That insistence upon the EUs wasting money, in order to prop-up the United States of Americas fracking industry, is, indeed, exceptional, because European nations have not customarily been treated as being mere colonies of other powers. The United States of America is treating purchasers from, or cooperators with, that competitor (Russia), as being its enemies.

The way the United States Representative stated this (after a lengthy diatribe which blamed China for Covid-19 and said that the United States had quit the World Health Organization because WHO lacked "independence from the Chinese Communist Party") was: "Economic sanctions are a legitimate means to achieve foreign policy, security, and other national and international objectives, and the United States is not alone in that view or in that practice." (That exact same sentence had earlier been stated by the United States regarding a different matter, on 18 November 2019.)

Actually, the United States regime is very "alone" on it. Furthermore, the other part was also a lie: the United States regime asserts that coercing corporations and countries to not buy from the lowest-cost supplier is within its sovereign right to do. However, as Professor Alfred de Zayas, who until recently was the United Nations top expert on this topic, explained in depth on 27 June 2019, that assertion is blatantly false, on many clear grounds concerning international law. It is a blatant lie, no matter how many times the United States regime asserts it (and asserts that the United States regime is not "alone" in asserting it).

Even back when Barack Obama (the man who repeatedly claimed that "The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation") was Americas President, the United States was exceptional at the United Nations.

For example, on 24 November 2014, I headlined "United States Among Only 3 Countries Officially Backing Nazism & Holocaust-Denial", and reported that, "In a United Nations vote, on November 21st, only three countries - the United States, Ukraine, and Canada - voted against a resolution to condemn racist facsism, or nazism, and to condemn denial of Germanys World War II Holocaust against primarily Jews. This measure passed the General Assembly, on a vote of 115 in favor, 3 against, and 55 abstentions (the abstentions were in order not to offend United States President Obama, who was opposed to the resolution)." Then, on 21 June 2015, I headlined "Americas United Nations Ambassador Continues Standing Up for Nazis" and noted that, again, Barack Obamas United Nations Ambassador, Samantha Power, had stood up for nazism; she had just delivered an address in Ukraine rallying that countrys supporters of nazism to war against Russia. Then, on 21 November 2017, I headlined "Trump Continues Obamas Support of Nazism", and reported that:

On November 16th, United States President Donald Trump, acting through an agent of his agent United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, voted at the UN against a resolution that condemns bigotry, and especially condemns nazism and all forms of racism. He thus, yet again, continues in the tradition from his predecessors, Presidents Obama and Bush, each year placing this nation in the company of only one or two United States allies throughout the world who join with the United States in refusing to commit to opposing and doing everything to reduce not just political Nazism (which, of course, is past), but ideological nazism, racist fascism - institutionalized bigotry (which, sadly, is not past).

But, be that as it may, the United States is also exceptional in many other ways. I listed some of those on July 13th.

There are two main reasons why the United States regime is able to coerce other nations to not violate its will. One is that though publicly available reports allege that it spends approximately 37% of the entire worlds military expenditures, the United States regime actually spends around 50% of the entire worlds military costs, and therefore it possesses extraordinary physical capacity to impose its will, if and when merely economically blockading an "enemy" country (via sanctions) fails to do the job of getting it to comply.

And the other main reason is that, since the United States government is at least as corrupt as the average "third-world" country is, but is instead one of the worlds richest countries, arranging pay-offs to other world leaders, in order to obtain their cooperation, is easily affordable. (These payoffs are being paid by all United States taxpayers, not by only Americas billionaires, who reap all of the profits from the empire that is imposed.)

American exceptionalism is real. It is not the type of exceptionalism that the regimes propaganda claims to be the case, but nonetheless it is real.

Reprinted here from the "Strategic Culture Foundation" provides a platform for exclusive analysis, research and policy comment on Eurasian and global affairs. We are covering political, economic, social and security issues worldwide. Since 2005 our journal has published thousands of analytical briefs and commentaries with the unique perspective of independent contributors. SCF works to broaden and diversify expert discussion by focusing on hidden aspects of international politics and unconventional thinking. Benefiting from the expanding power of the Internet, we work to spread reliable information, critical thought and progressive ideas.