"Has America falied in its duties as sole superpower since the end of the Cold War..."?

Question

...not to mention Vietnam, etc...but the quote is taken from former Sec. of Defense (Kennedy, Johnson) Robert McNamara's brilliant documentary, 'The Fog of War.'
He goes on to cry when talking about Curtis Lemay and the firebombing of Tokyo...100,000 Japanese killed in one night and one American wingman lost...and then the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after...
Has America been a disaster as a global empire re: its foreign policy. Is this why there is so much hatred of the US in the rest of the developing world?
Remember, the quote is from McNamara, who lived the cold war for almost 10 years....and a helluva better Sec of Defense than Rumsfeld ever made.

Answer 1

The failure has been in the neocon insistence that our PRIMARY efforts should be directed at MAINTAINING that sole superpower position at all costs.
Our aim has been directed toward undermining our nearest economic, political, and (no real challenge) military rivals, in case they might someday want to challenge the US. This is why our foreign relations look so incompetent - they were actually TRYING to foist trouble on other countries. This is the true evil of preemptive actions.

Answer 2

Well lets take a poll. I'm with the first guy. McNamara was supposed to be some kind of whiz kid. But He tried to run the Vietnam war from Washington. Him and his whiz kid buddies even selected the bombing targets and routes by which the planes must make the attack. They would predetermine how many attacks to make on each target, and send planes in that many times even if the target was destroyed during the first attack. They didn't want the bad press of hittting civilian targets so they did not attack anti-aircraft positions in the north resulting in numerous causalties. It is generally accepted that McNamara's micro management of the War in Vietnam is a major factor in the loss and the number of casualties.

As for "duties" of a superpower I think you're nuts. Its not an appointed position. If you're the sole superpower your duties are what ever you say they are. The number 1 duty is to look out for our own interest.

I don't doubt that McNamara cried talking about the deaths of the enemy even in Vietnam he was more concerned about civilian casualties than the casualties of his own troops. Its no wonder they had to draft people to serve.

Answer 3

We can talk about whether or not America has failed in its duties, but not until we actually have a consensus on what those duties are.

However, one thing that is not in dispute is whether McNamara was a better Sec of Def than Rumsfeld. He was not. McNamara understood so little about armed conflict that he invented the "body count" for assessing progress in Vietnam.

Rumsfeld may or may not have been successful, but that's pretty irrelevant when comparing him to a known failure. One thing I know is true that makes Rumsfeld better and that is that military success is not measured by quantifiables such as how many people on each side are killed, and Rumsfeld knows that, McNamara still does not.

Answer 4

I think that our failure is a result that because we are the "Super Power" we MUST involve ourselves in every international dispute or problem. American needs to retrench and return to the foreign policy of the 1920's and 30's and let the world blow itself up again.

American foreign policy is controlled by the Israel lobby so our middle-eastern foreign policy will NEVER change regardless if it is a Republican or Democratic administration.


McNamara better? Read "Dereliction of Duty" by H.R. McMasters. McNamara = Rumsfled, Rumsfeld = McNamara

Answer 5

Terrorism can not be eliminated through the elimination of poverty. As long as people can compel others into hanous acts, terrorism will not just disappear. Osama bin Laden does not perpetrate terrorism because he is in poverty. You may say that his subordinates that engage in suicide attacks are manipulated by him because they live in poverty. First, they all don't live in poverty. Many of the 9/11 attackers did not come from poverty. Second, it has been shown through psychological experiments, that there is a natural tendency for people to follow leaders even when they are ordered to cause harm to others. This clearly has nothing to do with poverty. Quite frankly, I have seen real poverty in Mexico, and yet there is no terrorism brewing done their either. Second, you say our sole repsonsibility to to build hospitals and develop infrastructure in the 3rd and 2nd world. I count two responsibilities that you listed, and since when did that become our responsbility and why is a so called free society (America) supposed to be imposing this responsbility on its citizens. As a citizen, I have a right to decide whether I want to support some nation through charitable contributions and the like. Who gave your *** the authority to tell me that not only must I contribute, I have to contribute in the exact manner that some corrupt politician has ordered me to. My feeling is that if some corrupt politician tells me to contribute to something, odds are I am contributing to a friend of that politician who doesn't need my contributions. It is your big government mentatlity that has led to a misappropriation of our resources. Without a big government we couldn't build bases enslaving the world and our politicians couldn't be bribed into supporting the 'infrastructure' of some tin-pot dictator's palace. But then again, it is just like a liberal to be generous with other people's money. Quite frankly I would be more proud if more citizens contributed more to helping the 3rd world then our government. Our government should NOT be making ANY contributions to the 3rd world!

Answer 6

yes. america has made the world a much more violent place under the bush/rove fiasco. and world opinion of america is at the lowest point in history.
by the way, mcnamara and johnson were responsible for more american death's than bush/rove. their policy of announcing planned bombing raids to the enemy killed more americans than iraq has.

Answer 7

I'm surprised you would quote someone who was responsible for most of Viet Nam and the loss of over 50K american soldiers lives.

What duties do we have as the 'sole' super power?

When has the US ever wanted a global empire like the Romans, Huns, Mongols, British, French, etc? With the exception of Guam and Gitmo we've given back almost all the land we've taken. outside CONUS.

Answer 8

The rest of the world has assigned America these global "duties". They want want want. They expect America to be there to defend them. They expect economic aid. They expect aid to feed their people. They expect Americans to deliver aid when there is a disaster.

The US is the world leader in delivering aid to the hungry in Africa. We are repaid by the African people dragging our soldiers down their streets.
We were the first to provide aid to earthquake victims in Pakistan. So they can continue to train terrorists that attack us and our allies in the UK.
We provide money to rebuild after wars then forgive the unpaid loans. All so they can turn on us and call us arrogant when we ask a favor of them,
We protect the Muslims against Serbian atrocities in return they bomb our office buildings.

Our duty is to protect the people of America...in which I say we have done a very good job.

Answer 9

You must remember that in order to circumvent the last issue we must first collectively complete the first as well. The real problem is to remember our most promising member of world organizational participation rally. I mean, what would happen if just we and the rest of the world was to forget what happened falsely because of facts wrongly reported? Wow, what a mess this could be if nothing happened back then. You know what I mean?

Answer 10

Its "role as a Super power" is nothing more than hundreds of other meaningless labels that people attach to America. America functions best when those in our highest offices function at what is best for all of America not just the oil markets..yes that's what Iraq is all about...and I find people who back this lie in Iraq as culpable our forefathers found Benedict Arnold.