the u.s. communist party which in one thousand twenty seven was telling stalin that they were having trouble trying to get american workers to make revolution against capitalism because of american exceptionalism nope. even further back to the beginning the true american exceptionalism i think was during the founding generations when they wanted a limited government that didn't interfere in other people's business so the phrase has been completely turned around. so what exactly is american exceptionalism today i well remember this yes we can yes we can just wait. yes. that's it yes we can do whatever we want you should do what we want. and if you don't. we'll make you. president after president this idea of exceptionalism dominated the white house

well the now white fighting in the name of the war on terror a strong republican line with democrats like clinton and obama it's our duty as americans to help they progress humanitarian crisis through of course military intervention. how else do you get what you want. this is why the little bit so they can steal the oil to stop military pieces to be used. the term profit. destruction positive thing it gives us something to rebuild improve or fix even if it isn't broken. the term american exceptionalism is really nothing more or less since world war two than a cold war. order

a euphemism for the military lobby and the powerful faction in the east coast establishment to justify wars and coup d'etat around the world using the name of god democracy free enterprise the american way of life to justify that. that america is some kind of city on the hill for decades our government has found a reason to go to war. we call it spreading democracy. the idea that the united states is somehow above and beyond other countries that it is if you will i suppose many would argue ordained by god to carry out some sort of an ideal. that's right it was our god given right to invade vietnam and iraq. belgrade. destroyed gadhafi. and now we have to help the syrians even

if it means helping al qaeda the president told us and have been telling us for years let us be proud of the two and a half million young americans who served in vietnam who served with honor and distinction and one of the most better prizes in the history of missions the american people have a genius for splendid and unselfish action. and into the hands of america god has placed the destinies of afflicted humanity america has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying to save innocent lives and preserve peace freedom and stability in europe. that is what we are doing in kosovo the qualities of courage and compassion that we strive for in america also determine our conduct abroad. the american flag stands for more than our power and our interests. ultimately this is not about who occupies this

office at any given time it's about who we are as a country. so . easy that. we as a country invaded iraq in two thousand and three we were looking for weapons of mass destruction that didn't even exist the little white lights of the u.n. never heard anyone. my fellow citizens at this hour american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military

operations to disarm iraq to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. on my orders coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine saddam hussein's ability to wage war. these are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. our president was looking to get rid of evil saddam so iraqis could enjoy the kind of democracy we enjoy in america oh by the way speaking of democracy that president wasn't really elected president another guy actually won the election but this guy became president just think of it as another exceptional quality of the us of a. bush was also trying to defeat the terrorists behind september eleventh in iraq only they were in a different country we occupied two years earlier afghanistan we carry out as

all empires to kind of savage brutality. that is. covered by this language of being exceptional and of being because we are exceptional of being and of the right to walk into other people's countries and demand that they conform according to some estimates over a million iraqi civilians died in ten years of war we are still fighting in afghanistan and have spent over a trillion dollars on both since two thousand and one we pay our levon million dollars a day in taxes to support our government's war after world war two america had built up a powerful war machine but had nothing to do with it and so the wars began korea vietnam iraq the list goes on today the us defense budget is more than the next ten margins defense budgets in the world put together why put all that away. we have

the budget we have the bombs it only makes sense to get the booty. in the twenty first century you can't simply tell the people that you're going to go in occupy another place in order to steal their oil or an order to take their gold or whatever you have to find a pretext and what we in the united states one of the most effective ways to do that is to convince the population that what is being done is moral it is ethical it is righteous and it is just. i have a responsibility as president the you with problems such as this before they do

permanent harm to our national interests. in one thousand nine hundred nine we decided it was. a hit cities journalist bridges even ones that had small children playing on them. small villages passenger trains and embassies became collateral damage all to bring down one man because he wasn't doing what we wanted once in the hague i went to talk with most of it he had trouble understanding really why the united states was so hostile to serbia and he said to me well you know we represented too much of a socialist ideal and there's some truth to that i think but he was a convenient target. some of our targets were previously our friends we took out one market offer for little or no reason in libya as well that's a recent example it started out that we were just providing this air cover to

prevent gadhafi threat against his own people that he had made but of course then it became let's take out kadafi so we take out leaders. come.

libya was another humanitarian projects you know a fight for democracy human rights in iraq stand in the shoes of an iraqi or a palestinian and you realize how empty this rhetoric of exceptionalism is and human rights we were tacitly supporting saddam hussein when he was gassing kurds and a lot. over one hundred forty thousand people killed when we provided satellite imagery so he could drop poison gas on iranian troops not to mention the depleted uranium that we've left all over the place. coupled with agent orange which we sprayed all over of the. and then you know i mean let's go all the way back to world war two nagasaki.

you know actually nothing very good has happened in afghanistan the last twelve years and that's something western media and political leaders don't want to talk about anymore well there's really no actual practicing democracy to speak of in afghanistan what you have is a kleptocratic corrupt. state but we should reframe the question so i was only just stays there there will be violence there will be chaos because it's an occupying power it again you know the u.s. wants to keep a footprint there but the longer its footprint is there the more well with lin had to say the violence will continue because of occupation you know just the fact that the afghan government has not yet been able to convince the afghan people that it

provides a better alternative. deliberate george is on an epic journey to such. one hundred twenty three days. through two hundred cities of russia. really by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand. in a record setting trip by land air sea another space. a limp a torch relay. on our part. of the gaza strip should not be a launching side for rocket attacks on israeli women children and civilians to the palestinian leadership is responsible for this this is why israel is. willing to repeat this experiment in judea and samaria so israel is not willing to be the

sucker of the middle east and to make long term concessions sacrificing the security of its own citizens only to find out in the end the conflict isn't over or is going on as before except that israel is now in a much worse position. wealthy british. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy. i suspect. that you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open for us is critical to our democracy correct albus. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the close works takeover

of our government and across several we've been hijacked why handful of transnational corporations they will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once it's all just i'm tom hartman and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on to the world we go beyond identifying the problem to try to fix rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing us to find her ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture is.

another example since we are the only country to ever use nuclear weapons on another country twice. the most prominent examples of american exceptionalism i can think of is the rhetoric of weapons of mass destruction around the world using not as a precursor to actually invade other nations when the us historically has been the greatest aggressor and user of. chemical and nuclear weapons. we also work very hard to make sure the rest of the world doesn't have them. especially in the middle east while for one very close friend we've made an exception they are allowed but don't have to tell anyone. in syria we demand the

government give up its chemical weapons and don't want to hear about possible rebel use of deadly toxic warfare. and this exceptionalism is all based upon picking and choosing what is in our national interest at the time i want to it's and i would say it's not a it's not a a major clarion. policy that we maintain across the board toward everybody it's me and. you know we make exceptions for our friends and our interests. i thought following egypt back in the hands of the military and a softer iran all in our interest but it usually sounds more like this from the president. i believe that the people's representatives must be invested in what america does abroad and that is the time to show the world that america keeps our commitments we do what we say. and we lead with the belief that right

makes might. the other way around. take world war two number one take the first world war even and go all the way up to the history of almost continuous regional wars that the u.s. has played a medal in hand in since the beginning of the cold war so right up until the present with syria and that that is all justified internally under the name of american exceptionalism.

human rights in bahrain and qatar drone killing civilians in yemen and women in saudi arabia not exceptionalism they're simply exceptions. saudi arabia has nothing in common with the mock recy has nothing in common with human rights has nothing in common with equal rights especially for women they still can't drive and then when you hear about this latest case of a woman who was gang raped and then given two hundred lashes even though she was the victim there's something. fundamentally sick about that and us and this administration the obama administration hasn't said one word we cannot and must not and we will not obama is busy we don't have health care for everyone we

have a national poverty rate of fifteen percent and we have more of our population in prison than the rest of the worlds. u.s. is an exceptional country but not in the way that most people think about it the us is exceptionally dysfunctional and if we compare the united states with advanced democracies around the world the us is in a category all by itself nothing really works here. the u.s. government is set up into branches to ensure no one body too much power one of them is congress but most of the time the two main parties are bickering blocking each

other and sometimes shutting down the government altogether in fact the last time the us government came together in an official declaration of war was world war two and back then we were fighting another exceptionally. were. terrorists for the attack within weeks past the enemy just destroyed the german constitution when it came to white people to lose them and support this program before being super bowl team to seal beach the whole. so well at home there is much work to do abroad there is even more. our domestic political dysfunction helps to explain the ease with which we go abroad to mess around with other people's lives it's much easier for the political

establishment in washington to say ok let's go. bomb serbia let's go invade iraq. but most americans don't exactly see it that way. american politics and american foreign policy is that we're americans we can do whatever we want we're not subject to any international law or international rules that apply to other countries. we can spy on other countries governments and even allies but most of all our own people americans. an exceptional man named

edward snowden told the world this but not to many countries and most americans don't seem to mind. the american population is you know the government is very effective at propaganda so. you know president obama called for this independent review of n.s.a. activities. but the director of the board that's doing this independent investigation is james clapper defense national intelligence. the five people on this board all have relationships with obama. so americans are ok with being exceptional at least most of them when you go through public school when when you go through universities you're taught certain perspectives about the united states that somehow set it apart from the rest of the world not that the united states is simply one nation among many nations on the planet but that the united

states is somehow better. we all pledged allegiance to the flag in school every child every day. gratefully to the. moon and it's thanks. in to me that pulling the would just take you through the motions. but everyone listening. are you feeling exceptional just like you made the united states except. i can't answer that i work for the government oh the free day should be. perfect because there. are you feeling exceptional today. there are not i believe that the i think i think i think that of the united states if you make love there with a bit of a country you go to those with the money for one of the big blue for the. diversity . respecting minority rights

a freedom freedom freedom and personal freedom one would. exceptional stand out from other countries. the i would say part of the problem solving ability and a fire brigade every man in town to work together to do certain things and i thought i would wear more power and say what you think makes the united states exceptional stand out from other countries. second place for business. executives to stand out is when our parents just then restrike three years there and then would be good to get out of bed where three were independent. really think for ourselves freedom. now you feeling exceptional today now you know you feeling exceptional today. what do you think makes the us exceptional nothing. some americans do not think were exception not

a question. more. of the empire and i think when you have the establishment being so arrogant and blind to what. the world you have the entire populace being bred into this exceptional mindset where we're just completely ignorant of what our policies do and we're completely removed and which is extremely dangerous american exceptionalism has been at the center of our nation's experience for nearly four hundred years what makes america unique politically culturally in science and industry what is the source of our country. and has forgotten why america is an exceptional nation and that. what they see. is that. it's no different to the british the french everyone else this is us exceptionalism we. still don't know why.

those of us who know we are not exceptional we are the exception. to. the.

cammo for the future han are. between two and three hundred million guns the united states so you can act like they're not here and keep kids away from them. the pass' out is they large you know i mean this teaches them a lot of rough spots ability to contemplate through the eyes of children if we can do it for our children for our future what is the cultural foam. real damage and complexity of this oil spill was not something you can grasp just by looking at dirty birds we have between four to five million people in this directly affected area of the coast and it's pretty clear why it's not being reported because b.p. can't afford to have a reported all along the gulf coast are clean they are safe and they're open for

business if b.p. is the single largest oil contributor to the pentagon the us war machine is heavily reliant upon b.p. and their oil this is a huge step backwards for the marker c. it's a step forward for oligarchy carex it is toxic is a look a lot like spraying in vietnam it was and it was not a picture that either the government or b.p. really wanted to have out there i don't want dispersants to be the agent on. his bills. delimited torch is on its epic journey to such. one hundred twenty three days. through two thousand nine hundred time two cities of russia. relate by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand killing.

hard.

to build a. mission to teach me. why you should. only. expect some of the toughest training. as afghanistan prepares for a presidential election many in the political and media mainstream speak for the country's first democratic transition but it's less talked about is the dire security situation on the ground where the karzai is angling to succeed him self

the powerful presence of the taliban and whether the u.s. . actually leave afghanistan. with the world's largest borrow from defaulting on its debt international lenders begin to panic about the consequences of america failing to reopen its government. there in the south leads to violent riots with hundreds arrested after angry mobs chanting slogans storm a shopping center in clash with police. to syria's opposition group bails on russia u.s. brokered peace talks we look at how the lengthy conflict devastated prosperous cities and forced people to take up arms.