"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world." - Arthur SchopenhauerAmericans won't like this, but practically everyone else will: Americans simply can never admit they were wrong.
Ill-begotten wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan have accomplished nothing but increasing enemies towards American arrogance.
Nothing could have been more misguided than the Iraq war, based on a mythical collection of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs).
The lie, the war and the occupation cost the lives of 4,801 Americans plus 179 British lives and the deaths of 1,455,590 Iraqis. The WMDs never existed.
Instead of an admission that the Iraq debacle was wrong, the fraudsters made lame excuses in attempts to exonerate themselves.
"There is nothing less to our credit than our neglect of the foreigner and his children, unless it be the arrogance most of us betray when we set out to 'Americanise' him," wrote American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley.
On November 28, a Nato air attack killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
Instead of admitting that they were wrong, the US military suggested the Pakistanis shot first.
Referring to the incident, Fred Branfman warned: "Short-sighted US policy is creating a national security disaster in Pakistan."
Instead of apologising and admitting to a mistake, Branfman said the US was digging itself into a hole.
"The US policy of trying to win in tiny Afghanistan by extending its war-making into giant, nuclear-armed Pakistan including drone strikes, cross-border raids, illegal US ground assassination... threatens the greatest US foreign policy disaster...."
American arrogance has clearly found several avenues for acrimony.
More than 1,000 American military bases around the world have often been an unwelcome embodiment of American military power.
Next, not only do Americans display a belief in their superiority over other countries, their leaders' actions reveal an arrogant pre-eminence over the masses of the American public.
In an earlier article, "Ruled by Arrogance", I commented on an American tendency to discredit others' opinions with forcefulness aimed at dominating those considered weaker or less important.
Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry faulted a mixture of arrogance and audacity in the Obama administration.
"This administration in Washington...clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need but it's the most qualified to make essential decisions for every American in every area," he said.
"That mix of arrogance and audacity that guides the Obama administration is an affront to every freedom-loving American."
Paradoxically, another American presidential candidate Rick Santorum criticised President Obama for looking apologetic rather than arrogant.
"Watching President Obama apologise last week for America's arrogance before a French audience that owes its freedom to the sacrifices of Americans helped convince me that he has a deep-seated antipathy towards American values and traditions," he said.
Earlier, in April 2009, a number of Republicans castigated President Obama for bowing before Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.
Though the White House denied it, video of the meeting provided enough fodder for Obama's critics.
America has a history of arrogance reflected in racial and gender supremacy. The Ku Klux Klan provides an example of a superior white attitude reflected in American slavery.
In a country full of misogyny, it's ironic that Americans now belittle countries whose men treat women as lesser creatures.
If it's difficult to convince most Americans that they are guided by undeserved arrogance, those who know it seem undisturbed by it.
As I mentioned in an earlier article, look closely enough and you'll find groups in any country who believe they are superior to all others.
The problems come when the "others" resist being disadvantaged.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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