Candor was appreciated

Dear Editor: Thank you, President Trump. This time, you candor is appreciated.

In just a quip the U.S. president admitted to America’s routine violence in world affairs.

At the Super Bowl pre-game show Bill Reilly of Fox News challenged Donald Trump about his stated respect for Russia’s Vladimar Putin.

“But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer” O’Reilly challenged The President.

Trump replied, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”

Up until now, every U.S. president has closely kept to an unstated but practiced doctrine, which made it OK for America to do distasteful things to advance The American Way worldwide.

The short version is “we’re special.”

This attitude and the behaviour are more formally labeled “American exceptionalism.”

A great hubbub of dismay followed Trump’s remark. Both Republican and Democrats closed ranks to exclaim a collective “tut tut.” Surely, America cannot be compared to Russia?

As the world’s only military superpower since World War II, the U.S. has relished in a free hand to run roughshod over anyone who challenged their military and industrial hegemony. One could recite the litany of invasions, assassinations, human rights abuses, covert operations, drone strikes and so on.

This Super Bowl Sunday the truth was stated and for the first time and it came from America’s highest elected official. Dave Cursons

Cawston