Are we the baddies? NBC chief foreign correspondent tweets amazement to find US foreign policy not always great
Hearing that the Americans “have become the bad guys” on the world stage was a “gut punch” to NBC News reporter Richard Engel, but Twitter quickly set the astonished journalist straight with some history and facts.
Engel, NBC's chief foreign correspondent, was informed of this shocking news via various “sources” who complained to him about the Trump administration’s recent betrayal of the Kurds in northern Syria and the alleged “misogynistic” firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine.
Such politically motivated actions “makes people think, we, Americans, have become the bad guys,” a stunned Engel wrote on Twitter, lamenting the good old days before Donald Trump, when American foreign policy decisions were apparently always carried out with noble intentions and without ulterior motives (Iraq, anyone?).
The more I talk talk to sources, the more i’m hearing America’s betrayal of the Kurds, and the humiliation, “misogynistic” “squashing” of US ambassador in Ukraine for political motivations makes people think, we, Americans, have become the “bad guys.” Hearing it was gut punch.
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) November 17, 2019
While Engel’s personal enlightenment may have been a lightbulb moment for him, Twitter wasn’t exactly stunned to discover that American foreign policy can be bad and even (*gasp!*) executed with selfish intentions.
“Apparently knowing basic history of US foreign policy is not a prerequisite for the job” of chief foreign correspondent at NBC news, one person mused.
Also on rt.com Journalist who wrote about Al Qaeda-linked group ‘worth befriending’ slams Gabbard for suggesting the US backed Al QaedaIndeed, the tweet was seen by many as confirmation that American journalists, rather than maintaining an objective eye when it comes to foreign policy, operate under the gospel-like assumption that the US is always the “good guy.”
Laughable Richard. Have your 'sources' ever heard of #Vietnam, #Iraq, #Gitmo, #Libya, #Afghan, proxy war on #Syria, #Yugoslavia, Iran '53, #Allende in '73, the 70 yr embargo on #Cuba, #Laos, #Korea, #Hiroshima et al...?
— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) November 18, 2019
One tweeter said Engel's tweet betrayed the “depth of a belief in American Exceptionalism” which holds that the US is “innately considered purely the ‘good guys’ throughout history.”
“This is the intellectual equivalent of someone telling an 8-year-old that Father Christmas isn't real,” another wrote.
More people wondered “when have you ever been the ‘good guys’ in the Middle East?”
Imagine being so indoctrinated into the idea of American exceptionalism that hearing, apparently for the first time, that Americans can be bad guys is a revelation. This man is a foreign correspondent! https://t.co/NORp8u3gql
— ishmael (@iD4RO) November 17, 2019
Journalist Lee Stranahan had perhaps one of the most blunt responses, however: “The world thinks we're hypocrites and liars because of our hypocrtical (sic), lying forging policy run by your pals at the CIA and State, Dick,” he wrote, adding: “You know that.”
Engel was not entirely outnumbered, though. Some agreed that the big news was “very heartbreaking,” as well as “humiliating, shameful and terrifying.” Another was still just upset by the fact that dastardly Trump had succeeded Barack Obama, a “near perfect American.”
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