Neither President Obama nor President Vladimir Putin believes America is, or that Americans are, exceptional. Considering that both these individuals are unexceptional big government socialists, one being a Chicago thug and the other a Soviet KGB thug, it is not surprising that they should be in agreement.
The United States was born in revolution. American exceptionalism is based on our unique philosophy of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; on our individualism; on our sense of egalitarianism; on our Republic, based on democratic principles; and on our unique flaws that America has worked at correcting since its birth. No other country has experienced our combination of history, values and mistakes.
Yet, America has entered two World Wars to save others, without asking for land or treasure. In fact, just the opposite, America, after World War II, not only infused life into Europe through the Marshall Plan but also turned former enemies into allies.
Russia cannot make this claim. In fact, I’m sure Georgia, Afghanistan, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and (east) Germany will shout down any Russian lie to the contrary.
Mr. Putin seems to forget that Russians want to leave Russia to immigrate to the United States. Who in the world immigrates to Russia for the freedoms it advertises? Certainly not for gays and lesbians, whose personal and private behavior was outlawed in Russia last week.
Both Presidents also believe in the United Nations. Why? It is a path toward one world government: another big government failure. Contrary to Mr. Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times, it is time to bypass the United Nations. It has evolved into a totally corrupt, third world driven criminal cartel whose primary ideal is to redistribute (read loot) wealth from the industrialized world to third world drones.
It is unfortunate that the people of Russia, Syria and the United States have such mediocrity at the respective helms of their countries. Nothing will be achieved in this charade of faux-diplomacy. Syria will never reveal how much poison gas is possesses. Russia will stand with Syria. The United States will never remove poison gas from Syria. The endgame for Putin and Assad: keep the poison gas, continue to undermine and embarrass Obama, and make Israel’s alleged possession of nuclear weapons the issue.