SAN ANTONIO, TX – The world is more stable and successful with American leadership in a forefront position, says retired Navy Seal Ryan Zinke.
“I challenge anyone to say different,” adds the State Senator in defense of his stance.
Retired Navy Seal and GOP State Senator Ryan Zinke. (Nickelina Noel/Borderzine.com)
These statements reflect Zinke’s belief in a prominent political ideology known as American exceptionalism. According to Kalevi J. Holsti, author of the article, “Exceptionalism in American foreign policy: Is it exceptional,” a country with an exceptionalist foreign policy is comprised of five primary features: a presumed duty to liberate other societies; nonconformity from the standards set in place and followed by non-exceptionalist states; presence in a believed-to-be hostile world; the belief that the exceptionalist country is both a victim and a constant target; and the expectation of enemy states.
Zinke spoke about American exceptionalism, America’s role in the world, its foreign policy, and its military during his recent presentation “SEALs at War,” sponsored by the St. Mary’s University Center for Terrorism Law.
Zinke addressed the Obama administration’s view of American leadership, which he believes is “a different vision” from American exceptionalism. He cited a controversial image of President Obama bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia as both a mishap and a sign of weakness. This criticism falls in line with the nonconformity aspect of exceptionalism.
He discussed the multiple goals of his SuperPAC, Special Operations for America (SOFA), which include: being “committed to a strong and independent military” capable of defending American pursuits; employing leadership which does not use the military for personal or political gain and deters from actions which may affect American greatness; employing leadership which also addresses issues affecting our military and potential threats to national security; and reconstructing the current leadership of the commander-in-chief.
While addressing a San Antonio audience at the Palladium in the fall, Zinke asked, “How many of you trust the United States government?” When no hands rose in response, he added, “I’ve campaigned all across this country, and the answer I get is exactly the same.”
This question echoed the purpose of Zinke’s speech, which attested that lack of trust in the government could lead to chaos.
“The number one threat, I think, is trust. In my lifetime, I fought on almost every continent. And when you don’t trust the government, when the people no longer have faith in the system, the republic will fall,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. It’s about faith.”
Zinke further criticized the Obama administration on its institution of restrictive rules of engagement for military members fighting terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. “[These rules] put military members fighting abroad under unnecessary risk,” he said.
Impending budget cuts and the fact that the military is not allowed to conduct night operations, despite having spent billions of dollars honing the ability to do so, contributes to other potentially harmful problems in the field. Zinke identified himself as a “fight or go home guy,” stating that, “You give the troops what they need, or you go home.”
The need to provide funding and support for the military conveys the ideology of American exceptionalism.
Zinke, as a former SEAL Team 6 commander, dubs this elite team as being the nation’s 911 group within the military.
The average deployment for a SEAL is 220 days out of the year, according to Zinke. Each SEAL costs about $2 million in taxes and operate on every continent, but Antarctica.
Zinke admits to his prejudices and continues on by crediting other great individuals in every service. In order for the U.S. to become a powerful leading nation, it is important to have a great leader and a successful military.
He illustrated the difficulty in becoming one of “America’s elite:” To be a SEAL requires three years of experience and that roughly 80 percent of those who apply do not succeed; those accepted must undergo three-and-a-half years of training before performing in the field. After an additional five years of experience, a SEAL may apply for or receive invitation to SEAL Team 6. Of these SEALS, 50 percent fail to make it to SEAL Team 6.
Zinke also addressed the current SEAL Team 6’s raid on Osama bin Laden, citing it as not only the current administration’s success, but also the success of previous administrations. He also made note of President Obama’s decisions regarding the release of CIA-classified documents about SEAL Team 6 to Hollywood film producers. Zinke expressed his opposition to the President’s decision. Moreover, he addressed the issue of a young SEAL who recently published a book regarding the raid, an incident that he believes made that SEAL as guilty as the President for providing sensitive CIA information to the public. Due to the president’s actions however, current attempts to punish the young SEAL cannot be carried out unless there is an equal punishment for the President as well, he said.
The opinions of Navy Seal Ryan Zinke confirm the framers of the Constitution’s wisdom to clearly and unequivocally put the military in the hands of civilian leadership. It was clear to those astute men, with the memory of tyranny as known and applied in Europe of the time, that a military leader will always impose military solutions to social problems, they feel the military solutions are the best and only solutions; they are not democratic. The political right conservatives of our country, of which active and retired military and police subscribe in overwhelming numbers, but not all, generally but again not all, members of the gun culture of which the NRA (National Rifle Association) is the spearhead of the philosophy that arming everybody will produce a social détente. Does any one besides me, and I am pro-gun, question the wisdom of this position?
Navy Seal Ryan Zinke is simply preaching what every other American government agency from the federal to local levels preach, that each one of them is too important to have their budgets cut. The military has taken the “entitlement” concept that certain politcians use to criticize all people who are receiving, and expect to continue to receive help from our government to the institutional level. So they push policies that are “budget balancing” by cutting the budgets for social programs increasing the budget for military programs and increasing taxes for the poor and working class and cutting taxes on the ultra rich.
It is interesting that Seal Zinke criticizes President Obama’s act of cultural respect as bowing to another culture. Really? It is Americans arrogance throughout the world that has earned us the sobriquet of “Ugly Americans.”
Many governments throughout the world support the US, but at the tremendous cost of billions of dollars in aid (tax payer dollars), most often in the form of military materiel so those governments can continue to repress their local populations who oppose the negative impact of our foreign and economic policies, while they publicly praise us for publicity to keep the money coming. Look at what is happening in Egypt when local democracy asserted itself. President Obama is doing just fine with the foreign policy parameters he inherited.
Among the most egregious cuts to the public are the cuts to mental health programs. Do we really want leave the people with mental health issues without any recourse for help? Is it expensive? It is very expensive, but not as expensive as wars! The military is insensitive to mental health issues. Take a look at how it deals with its own internal mental health issues to have a clue as to how they would deal with civilian citizens with mental health issues. The price we pay as civilian citizens for this absence of funding for mental health programs is the price Newtown Connecticut is paying. If everybody has guns so will the mentally unstable have guns just as they can get now.
The fact that Navy Seal Zinke is whining about budget cuts to the military is a good sign for the country; that he criticizes President Obama is good sign that our president is doing somethings right. President Clinton had the “intestinal fortitude” to leave his office with a budget surplus, achieved by drastic cuts to the military and efficient consolidation of military bases, that surplus President Bush quickly squandered away in a mismanaged war in Afghanistan and an totally contrived unnecessary war in Iraq. I don’t question the bravery of our fighting forces; but the generals are not the best judges of foreign policy. They want to go out and use all the toys the taxpayer provides often ignoring the consequences to our country and the international standing of our country and our young men who are sent to those front lines.
We need to reinvest in our school systems, in our mental health systems, and something that I have always thought should be a priority in our school systems beginning in elementary: Civic Education. We need to educate our youth (many adults seem to have an unabashed ignorance of civility) to the responsibilities and contributions of good citizens with a solid in depth curriculum at every grade level through high school.
The fact that a military man can criticize openly his ex-Commander In Chief, is testament to the strength of our many strong and well functioning institutions. Our government does many things very well. Can it be improved? Of course, generally we’re safe in our cities, most people don’t carry guns around in a state of paranoia. That is as it should be. The gun culture thrives in promoting paranoia and makes handsome profits by gun sales, gun training, etc. If a person has a firearm in her or his house it should be out of reach of everybody else, especially children and adolescents. There should be training on the use and safety of those weapons periodically or they should be sold. It is a specialized tool that requires specialized responsible training.
Finally, more of us should attend those so-called “terrorism” seminars to understand their mentality. It can be very disconcerting to reflect upon the proposals and solutions talked about. They criticize our government but they want to call the shots; would we really want them to run the government?
F YOU HAVE FAMILY ACTIVE OR RETIRED BLAST WASHINGTON!!! Alpha Mic Foxtrot, SOS!!! – I’ve contacted: Gen. Mattiss, Speaker of the House, Senators: Gowdy, Paul & Cruz HELP AMERICA!
My father signed a contract for his 20 years Naval service contingent upon certain benefits stipulated within it! Such as his and my mothers Medical, Long/Short Term Care and Medications, too. Obama is cutting our Armed forces and Veterans beyond the law, it is against the contracts of all veterans! Obama needs to be impeached period! Cuts need to be made in Washington Government Bureaucracy like obama’s “Civilian Military!” or The Billions given away to Arab Nations and Muslims Brotherhood while sequestering more of our monies here!! We the people are tired and formally direct our representatives to retake America back from the oligarchy pulling this fascist socialist dictator tyrant puppet out of office and his minions charged for high crimes of treason! HELP US SENATOR “MR. CRUZ!” UNITE ALL THOSE THAT WOULD FIGHT FOR OUR VERY SOVEREIGNTY AND CONSTITUTION!
MY FATHER AND MOTHER PAID FOR THEIR BENEFITS BY HIS 20 YEAR TIME SERVED DUTIFULLY IN THE NAVY! AS DID ALL OUR VETERANS!!! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=195031407332330…
THIS POS IS CUTTING THE WRONG PLACES PEOPLE!!! http://www.examiner.com/…/obama-to-cut-medical-benefits…
CUT THIS PROGRAM AND SEIZE ASSETS DEFUND IT!!! I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE CLAPPING TO THIS SPEECH???!!! RISE OF THE GESTAPO, I MEAN SS!! HIS GESTAPO IS NSA, IRS, FUSION CENTERS!!!! DEFUND ALL THIS!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fO-usAlqak
I WILL BE EMAILING GOV. PERRY TOO! http://foxnewsinsider.com/…/veterans-upset-over-pension…
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE SIR,
PLEASE HELP ALL OUR ARMED FORCES UNDER THIS TYRANT!
GODS SPEED, AHEAD FULL AND COMMENCE FIRING AT WILL!!
Retired Navy Seal Commander Ryan Zinke