American Unexceptionalism

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2014/06/blackwater_shows_there_s_nothing_special_in_the_nature_of_americans.html


Blackwater was founded 17 years ago by Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL.

Two years ago, in a speech to the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of lacking faith in American exceptionalism. Romney recalled that as a businessman traveling the world, “I just knew inside I had a special gift no one else had. I was American.” Part of the “special nature of being American,” Romney argued, was our selfless habit of liberating people around the world. “It's something we all share,” he told the crowd.

No, it isn’t. There’s nothing special about our nature. The latest evidence of this is a trove of documents released in the Blackwater scandal.

On Sept. 16, 2007, Americans working for the security contractor shot and killed 17 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. Under investigation, the guards’ excuses have crumbled. Now, the State Department has relinquished internal reports that expose the extent to which Blackwater and its employees ran amok. Insulated from government supervision, the company degenerated into a militia.

Blackwater was founded 17 years ago by Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL. When the U.S. went into Afghanistan and Iraq, Blackwater picked up a lot of business, providing security to diplomats and intelligence personnel. The company’s project manager in Baghdad, Danny Carroll, was another former SEAL. The feds loved Blackwater’s ruthless, violent efficiency. Whatever needed to be done, Blackwater would do it.