The Political Legacy Of The Cold War

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We Are Not an Indispensable Nation

What happened was this: Shortly after the end of the Cold War, virtually the entire American foreign-policy establishment succumbed to a monumentally self-destructive ideological fever. Like Covid, INS exacts a painful toll of victims. Unlike Covid, we await the vaccine that can prevent its spread. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future. Bullshit, in short. Current Issue View our current issue The United States does not see further into the future than Ireland, Indonesia, or any other country, regardless of how ancient or freshly minted it may be.

The United States can’t see further into the future than other countries.

Also bullshit. Some of us but by no means all Americans have long since concluded that Trump was and remains a congenital liar. To charge Albright with lying, however, somehow rates as bad form, impolite, even rude. She is, after all, a distinguished former official and the recipient of many honors. Albright has not suffered a similar fate. And to be fair, Albright herself is not solely or even mainly responsible for the havoc that INS has caused. While the former secretary of state promoted the syndrome in notably expansive language, the substance of her remark was anything but novel.

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She was merely reiterating what, in Washington, still passes for a self-evident truism: America must lead. No conceivable alternative exists. Leadership implies responsibilities and, by extension, confers prerogatives. Put crudely—more crudely than Albright would have expressed it to a television audience—we make the rules. More specifically, Albright was alluding to a particular prerogative that a succession of post-Cold War presidents, including Donald Trump and now Joe Bidenhave exercised.

Our political leaders routinely authorize the elimination, with extreme prejudice, of persons unwilling to acknowledge our indispensability.

David Bohm A Life Dedicated to Understanding the Quantum World

Should Irish or Indonesian leaders assert such a prerogative, American officials would roundly condemn them. How could such things be permitted to occur in a civilized world? Now, allow me to acknowledge the allure of exercising privileges. I once flew on a private jet—very cool, indeed. Their disappointment is not without justification. The bullshit has lost its mojo. Since the promulgation of the Albright Doctrine, US forces have bombed, invaded, and occupied various countries across the Greater Middle East and Africa with elan.

And our divided, dysfunctional country is the poorer for it, as the cheated themselves have belatedly discovered. Blame Donald Trump for that division and dysfunction? Not me. I hold the militant purveyors of INS principally responsible.]

The Political Legacy Of The Cold War - idea

He grew up, according to his biographer Ronald Steel , in a "gilded Jewish ghetto". His mother, Daisy Baum, who like her husband came from modest economic circumstances, had graduated from Hunter College. The wealthy and influential family belonged to the upper social class, cultivated contacts in the highest circles, and regularly spent their summer holidays in Europe. The family had a reform Jewish orientation; averse to "orientalism", they attended Temple Emanu-El. Walter had his reform Jewish confirmation instead of the traditional Bar Mitzvah at the age of Lippmann was emotionally distanced from both parents, but had closer ties to his maternal grandmother. The political orientation of the family was Republican. Classes included 11 hours of ancient Greek and 5 hours of Latin per week.