US exceptionalism similar to Nazi rhetoric: Ecuador

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has lashed out at his US counterpart, Barack Obama, over his comment about American exceptionalism, stating that such a rhetoric poses a real risk and is similar to the Nazi ideals.

“Does not this remind you of the Nazis’ rhetoric before and during the World War II? They considered themselves the chosen race, the superior race, etc. Such words and ideas pose extreme danger,” Correa said in an exclusive interview with Entrevista program broadcast on Russia’s Spanish-language RT Actualidad news channel on Friday.

Obama termed the United States exceptional last month in a speech made when Washington was mulling military strike on Syria for a chemical attack that Syrian foreign-sponsored militants blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Correa said the United States keeps violating other countries’ sovereignty, but this will eventually change.

“What Plato wrote in his [Socratic] dialogues more than 2,000 years ago is true. Justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger. They are strong, that’s why they will continue lying, violating other states’ sovereignty, and breaching international law. But one day this unjust world will have to change,” he stated.

On October 3, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko censured Obama over his recent comments about American exceptionalism.

“Belarus had already survived this exceptionalism … which cost us 50 million lives,” he said while referring to the alleged number of Soviet deaths during World War II.

Lukashenko added, “Obama surprises me.… Not long ago at all, blacks in America were slaves, and now they’re talking about some kind of exceptionalism.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the concept of exceptionalism into question in an editorial published in The New York Times last month, writing, “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.”

Experts contend that the idea of declaring oneself ‘special, superior and/or exceptional’ can evoke a sense of entitlement power – that the same standards of judgment are applied differently to one person compared to another.