The Audacity of Delusion

It is one thing when Mad Madeleine Albright declares the U.S. "the indispensable nation", and quite another when Barack "Hope and Change" Obama does so, 15 years after Albright's conceit has been conclusively proven wrong.

As I told Voice of Russia the other day, there is a dangerous combination of arrogance and stupidity in Washington, making the Empire's leadership blind to reality because they've begun to drink their own kool-aid.

In his West Point speech, the Emperor demonstrates the fact of this. It's all hyperbole, outright denial of reality and assertion of virtual facts. Moreover, he admits to it, crediting "our ability to shape world opinion" (!) for the alleged "isolation" and "condemnation" of Russia, even as he describes his camp followers - G-7, EU, OSCE, NATO and the IMF - as "the world."

Jan Oberg of the Transnational Foundation offers an interesting analysis of the West Point speech. I'd like to quote the conclusion here, but I suggest you read all of it:

In its reality-defying arrogance and self-praise it leaves little hope for those of us who have always been fascinated by the American cultural and other creativity and – earlier – leadership while loathed its empire’s arrogance, exceptionalist militarism and insensitivity to the victims of its policies.
The audacity of hope is crushed. Regrettably, with this speech one has to think more in terms of the audacity of fear to begin to perceive the potentially catastrophic combination of militarism, hubris, a decreasing sense of reality and silly self-praise.