American Exceptionalism

Tuesday of this week, President Barack Obama made his case to the nation for his set of actions on the civil war raging in Syria. In the absence of a clear threat to the United States or a threat to its interests and also in the face of overwhelming national apathy to get involved in yet another conflict in the Middle East, Mr. Obama had a difficult task at hand.  He evoked the images of children dying due to the chemical attacks by the Assad regime as the principal reason for US involvement in the conflict.  He ended his address by stating that Americans cannot look the other way when children are being murdered and our concern makes us exceptional, unlike any other country.

The next day, Vladimir Putin, his political nemesis on the Syria matter, took to the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times with his take on why US should not use force.  He also used the piece to chide Mr. Obama to refer to Americans as exceptional and added “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation”.  Mr. Putin’s completely off-mark interpretation of the remarks by the President could be attributed to the Russians extreme sensitivity to any group asserting superiority over others.  After all that is how the Nazi era was born, with Hitler asserting the superiority of the Aryan race over everyone else, and Russia suffered heavily because of the actions of that group.  So it is important to re-assure Putin that he has nothing to fear and to ensure that he understands the correct interpretation of American exceptionalism.

America is exceptional because of its people.  There is no other country in the world except the United States where its people do not have a shared ancestry. And there is no other country other than the US where it has enshrined in its founding documents, the principle of equality of all its diverse people, and the freedom to pursue happiness the way they see fit.  This incredible commitment to diversity and liberty has created a melting pot of culture, fusion of ideas, and a crucible for innovation from which new strains of thoughts and ways of living are evolving every day.  America is exceptional not because of its military superiority.  America is exceptional because there is opportunity for every citizen to achieve exception in whatever they want to pursue without the fear of Government or other consequences.

There are exceptional men and women in many countries, highly likely in the same proportions as in the US, and these exceptional people belong to different hues, ethnicity and religions.  But the countries that these exceptional people belong to are not exceptional.  All Americans are not exceptional, but America is exceptional because of all its people.