{"id":3679,"date":"2009-04-29T16:53:02","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=3679"},"modified":"2012-12-26T21:51:55","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T02:51:55","slug":"the-mythology-of-the-moral-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/international-relations\/04\/29\/the-mythology-of-the-moral-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mythology Of The ‘Moral’ America"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know a lot of people are getting hell-bent over the current discussion on torture (I certainly have<\/a>). But certain elements of this discussion have concerned me, mostly the idea that America has lost its ‘moral compass’ during the Bush years and through the torture and extraordinary rendition scandal.<\/p>\n

To this, I simply respond What moral compass?<\/em> America, in it’s 220 years of existence has succeeded precisely because it’s geo-political and economic strategies have no moral element to them. The short-sightedness of this debate is that the Bush years were some sort of anomaly in the trajectory of American goodness, while the truth is the narrative of America has been one of human rights abuse, economic exploitation, and disregard for the lives of non-Americans.<\/p>\n

A small smattering of America’s ‘moral compass’ just from the past 50 years:<\/p>\n