“US has to break with its superpower arrogance” – Bill Ayers

Bill Ayers recently spoke with Russian TV network RT (formerly Russia Today). *sigh*

Published 11 January, 2010, 09:25

Edited 13 January, 2010, 09:55

The US should give up its superpower ambitions and put itself on equal footing with other nations – otherwise, it will find itself at an impasse, believes American scholar Bill Ayers.

“The arrogance of shouting your opinion and unwillingness to hear anything in response is something that puts us in a parallel situation. It means we can’t grow, we can’t change,” he told RT.

“It has already created problems for the US and they are getting bigger. I think what we need is to break from that tradition of American foreign policy of the last sixty years or longer and really imagine ourselves entering into the world as a nation among nations – not as a superpower, not as police of the world. We need to enter into the conversation with respect – for ourselves, but also respect for others.”

Professor Ayers also responded to the criticism from talk show host Bill O’Reilly, who mocked his recent interview with RT.

“Bill O’Reilly is apparently unhappy about me, unhappy that I had something to say but he did not say anything about the content what I have said. That interview that we did had a lot of content. One of the things we talked about how a country like the United States with less than five per cent of the world’s population can kind of police the world and have a trillion dollar military budget,” Ayers said.

“So the media ought to have taken that content – not trying to scream or yell or make slogans about who’s saying what. But this is what Bill O’Reilly specializes in,” he added.

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