When all else fails, blame the U.S.

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The first refuge of tyrants and buffoons is to blame someone else for the messes they make. On the world stage, that usually means blaming America when things do not go their way.

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[robert l. bentham]

Frida Ghitis​

no understanding of historical fact... ugh ​

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Reading the article it seems that the argument could so easily be turned around - when things get rough in the US, politicians blame some little country somewhere else, preferably someone they can effortlessly kick the crap out of.

On the other hand, the US funds dissident groups, the US funds terrorists, the US financial system rapes the world and if you happen to be a country that finds itself under sanctions then you can be pretty sure that most of the economic problems in such a country are caused by the sanctions because the sanctions are intended to cause that.

America runs roughshod over much of the world simply because it is so big and so strong that it doesn't have to worry too much about retaliation - but why don't they just own it instead of pretending like they don't do that.

When the cookies go missing from the jar, the kid with the crumby shirt and chocolate chip smile can say "wasn't me", but he's not fooling anyone.

 

[Glaucus]

It's more like: When the cookies go missing from the jar, the fat kid gets the blame regardless of the facts.

Even though the US does pull a lot of dirty tricks, I think the point of this article is that it's also a favorite dirty trick by many politicians to blame outsiders for their problems. The big danger there is of course that the problems go unsolved because everyone believes it is out of their hands. Or even worse, they over correct for the problems by cracking down on dissenters. My personal view is that even if outside forces are against you, you can still over come problems internally by addressing them head on. The US might fund dissident groups, but dissident groups exist for a reason and that's usually because of serious problems within a nation. When minority groups rule for extended periods, you're gonna have dissent either way. You could blame the US for the bloodshed in the Middle East today, but I think blaming the British for redrawing the borders so badly goes a lot further into explaining what is happening today. I fully believe that if the US were to sink into the abyss today, none of the Middle East problems would be solved tomorrow. In fact, they'd likely get a lot worse.

Anyway, my point is that although the US has behaved badly on a number of occasions, we should remember that they're not the only ones that have done so. There's plenty of bad apples out there and blaming only the US all the time only provides the rest of them useful cover. I don't see how that's good for anybody.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

It's more like: When the cookies go missing from the jar, the fat kid gets the blame regardless of the facts.

It's a fair assumption - they may not have stolen the cookies on THIS occasion, but they have stolen cookies regularly.

Even though the US does pull a lot of dirty tricks, I think the point of this article is that it's also a favorite dirty trick by many politicians to blame outsiders for their problems.

Scapegoating is ancient and effective - true. The US politicians use it all the time and so do religious leaders. Hurricane wipe out your town? Probably the fault of some homosexual. Price of oil goes up? It's the Iranians fault for enriching uranium. Economy collapsing? It's the financiers fault for committing massive fraud. We'll sometimes it really is the fault of the people who are getting the blame.

You could blame the US for the bloodshed in the Middle East today, but I think blaming the British for redrawing the borders so badly goes a lot further into explaining what is happening today. I fully believe that if the US were to sink into the abyss today, none of the Middle East problems would be solved tomorrow. In fact, they'd likely get a lot worse.

Move the blame from one outside force to another. Yes, there are internal problems but those come about to a large extent that the repressive regimes are there fore a reason - they have been installed, encouraged and propped up by outside powers for the benefit of the outside powers. The people are never able to achieve democracy because that does not serve the outside powers. All of the Middle Eastern countries that did achieve a certain degree of democracy were overthrown by western backed coups and turned into dictatorships because it's easier to get a dictator to hand over a country's resources than to get a population to vote to do it. Sure, the problem wouldn't be solved if the US sank into the abyss, China, Russia, Britain and France would step in and do it instead (they are doing it now but because the US is the big kid, these guys are lesser players).

If Democracy could take hold in France, Britain, the US and China then it may stand a chance in other places. Until then ...