Tag: America

Ben Sasse in his book “The vanishing American adult” gives a litany of what is wrong in the United States. Yet we all agree that the destiny of the world is tied up with that of the United States. Never in the history of mankind has so much depended on the political leadership in  one country as it is with contemporary America. This is why since the  past 100 years,  we have referred to these times as American century. American historians and even their politicians have described the achievements of the country in the past as their “manifest destiny”. This destiny manifested itself in the expansion of the original 13 colonies’ on the Atlantic Ocean coast in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, incorporating former territories of France in Louisiana and that of Spain in Florida and defeat of Mexico and annexation of its territories in Texas, New Mexico and California and purchase of Alaska from Russia.

Thus the small English and Dutch settlements on the Atlantic coast in the east metamorphosed into continental United States of America. America is so vast that traveling from new York in the east to San Francisco in the west by modern jet planes takes up to six hours or more. The same will be true of flying from Montpelier in Vermont in the North to Houston Texas in the South. Apart from continental United States, the country through war in the latter part of the 19th century acquired several territories five of which are inhabited. These are Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana islands, Samoa, and US Virgin Islands. It had earlier on annexed Hawaii in 1898 during its war with Spain. With such a vast country and the idealism of its leaders, the domination of the world by this youthful country was a matter of time. There was however a flaw in the foundation of the country in its massacre or genocide against Native Americans and its building of its economy on the sweat and blood of African unpaid labour of slavery. Resolution of this twin evil was to plague American history up to contemporary times. But this has not stopped America from realizing its manifest destiny. The frontier has always been an important theme in modern American history whether in terms of expansion to the west or even the conquest of space. It is not just a coincidence that iconic American President Kennedy saw putting an American on the moon within 10 years beginning from 1961 as conquest of another frontier. In fact, his regime was dominated by the concept of Americans being “frontiers men”. But this new frontier was for good as it witnessed the sharing with the rest of the world American education and science through the Peace Corps and bringing hundreds of thousands of young men on American scholarship from the developing world to study and train in American excellent universities and colleges. This age of idealism was to terminate in the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers – John and Robert, and Malcom X and Martin Luther King jnr.

Since the end of the Second World War in which America reluctantly played a major and decisive role culminating in the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on recalcitrant Japan to bring the war to an end with a loud bang, the country has thrown up some leaders of varying character and stature. These include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight  D Eisenhower , John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Milhous Nixon, James Earl Carter, Ronald  Wilson Reagan, George  Walker Herbert Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George Walker Bush, Barrack Hussein Obama and now Donald J Trump. The USA since the time of President James Monroe in the early part of the 19th century has been pulled in different policy directions of isolationism and internationalism. Going back to its founding fathers, America has always wanted to avoid entanglement in old world politics and wars but has always been drawn into it reluctantly as was the case with the First and the Second World wars. The roles of its presidents such as Woodrow Wilson in the formation of the League of Nations, a first attempt at international governance and collective security and the part played in the drawing up the Atlantic charter and the formation of the United Nations by President Roosevelt confirm American global leadership. But in spite of this, the lack of wisdom and moral inadequacy of America arising from its domestic problem of inequality, injustice and violence always exposed the flaw in American leadership. On top of this was its runaway capitalism which put profit before morals and global expansion in the name of democracy brought it into conflict with the other globalizing ideology of communism in Europe, Asia, Africa and in its backyard of Latin America. But in spite of whatever difficulties it faced, America to the widest spectrum of mankind remains a shining light on the hill that can never be extinguished. This is why its failure is seen as human failure all over the world. Because of its preponderant power, it is correct to say that when one sneezes in Washington the rest of the world catches cold. But this leadership imposes moral responsibility on America. It is a moot question whether America meets its moral responsibilities and obligations.

We know of course that for years America paid sometimes a third of UN budget although it has now been scaled down to about 22% but in terms of humanitarian support, America bears substantial burden especially in global food security. American science is also at the cutting edge of scientific and technological innovation and conquest or mitigation of the scourge of diseases and epidemics. But all these positive things the country does is vitiated by its internal problems of racial discrimination and violence especially gun violence.

The recent violence in Las Vegas, Nevada in which an apparently deranged man killed 58 innocent people and wounded more than 500 people calls into question the maturity of the United States as a civilized country. It is the only country in the world that constantly goes through this kind of man made tragedy in peace time. American so-called right for all individuals to carry arms is based on warped historical interpretation. In the formative stage of American evolution in a wild and hostile environment and in the absence of organized police and army, everyone protected himself by carrying weapons. This so-called Second Amendment to its constitution is a curse on America where more people have died in domestic violence than all the soldiers America lost since the Second World War. The gun lobby of the National Rifle Association (NRA) has made it impossible for commonsensical gun control to be put in place in America. The NRA argues “guns don’t kill people kill” and it says “it takes a gun in the hands of a good man to silence an armed bad man”. This kind of asinine logic is said often to confuse those who want to take guns from American society. This is one of the evils of American capitalism where profit comes before life. This carnage has become as American as apple pie.

In its long history, four American presidents have been assassinated; another seven barely escaped the assassins’ bullets or survived the bullets. Those killed include Abraham Lincoln, James A Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Those seven who survived include-namely Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Furthermore, attempts were made on Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. It can thus be seen that almost 25 percent of American presidents have either been shot or escaped assassination narrowly.

The terrible shooting in Las Vegas in which 59 people died and more than 500 people were wounded followed other ghastly shooting in Orlando Florida when a lone gunman killed 49 people and wounded 58 people in June 2016.This followed other shooting in Virginia Tech University in April 2007 which saw 32 dead and 17 wounded. Perhaps the most shocking was the slaughter of 26 children with two severely wounded in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut on December 14, 2012. This killing brought tears to the then President Obama’s eyes yet it did not move lovers of guns to kick their addiction.

These are just a few examples of gun violence in the USA but in actual fact one person is shot every minute in the USA. The question to ask is what kind of civilization will tolerate this kind of barbarism and violence in the 21st century? All this killing is done on the basis of the right to bear arms! This right was meaningful at the formative years of America but the country has just refused to grow up. It is this refusal to grow up that has led the country to elect a juvenile elderly man as president .This is a man who has broken all accepted norms of social behaviour and democratic tradition in the United States.  The recent violent language of President Trump in the United Nations General Assembly goes against not only the tradition of the UN but of the USA. Yet all he said could have been said in diplomatic language craftily drafted and conveying the same meaning. But by engaging in “tono fascista” he allowed himself to be insulted by those countries he attacked.