Owen Jones exposes the USA good-guy myth

The US always defined itself as a land of freedom, in contrast to the tyrannies of the Old World, even though it enslaved 89% of its Black population just two lifetimes ago. When the US dabbled with European-style colonialism after the Spanish-American war, annexing the Philippines, members of the US elite founded the American Anti-Imperialist League, warning that the US government sought to “extinguish the spirit of 1776” and “change the republic into an empire”.

Claims of democracy were fatally compromised by the longstanding restriction of the rights of African Americans in the south, who had to win their rights through arduous struggle. Abroad, the US was guilty of innumerable horrors. In the 1960s and 70s, the US intervened to prop up South Vietnam’s brutal military dictatorship, and carpet-bombed south-east Asia. In Cambodia alone, US bombing may have killed up to 500,000 civilians: one such campaign was named Operation Freedom Deal, underlining the Orwellian use of language to justify murderous domination.Claims of democracy were fatally compromised by the longstanding restriction of the rights of African Americans in the south, who had to win their rights through arduous struggle. Abroad, the US was guilty of innumerable horrors. In the 1960s and 70s, the US intervened to prop up South Vietnam’s brutal military dictatorship, and carpet-bombed south-east Asia. In Cambodia alone, US bombing may have killed up to 500,000 civilians: one such campaign was named Operation Freedom Deal, underlining the Orwellian use of language to justify murderous domination.

The US no longer bothers to dress up its ruthless perceived self-interest in the garbs of high-minded principles. This is a major strategic mistake. These mythical moral claims helped win consent or at least acquiescence from the US public for the global projection of power: Hollywood’s presentation of the US as “the good guys” taps into a self-perception that is important for many Americans. These claims also beguiled significant numbers of people around the globe, offering up natural allies for the US in each continent.

That is all dead now. And so all we are left with is a floundering superpower with depleted military prowess, a broken economic model, a crisis-ridden democracy and an openly thuggish demeanour. The fall of US power is anything but dignified.