There is nobody in the world who doubts the fact that over the past thirty years, America has declined more than thirty levels in terms of power and global credibility. Everybody knows this. Even the Americans themselves admit this. For example, veteran American politicians make fun of the recent American governments and politicians and tell them, "You dragged America down from that position and into these conditions". And they are right: America has declined. Today there is no government in the world that is as hated as the American government. If the regional governments as well as other governments outside the region find the courage to specify a day for expressing hatred towards the American government and tell their people to take to the streets on that day, the demonstration that will be held will be the largest in history. This is America's status in the world.
As for America's intellectual and rational state - after all, a government or a nation relies on the intellectual principles that it presents. Money alone does not bring about credibility for nations: there is a need for ideas. The Americans used to say that they had a set of "principles", that they had a set of "values", "American values". They used to create uproar in the world for the sake of these principles and values. Notice what has happened to American values today.
They were claiming that they were opposed to terrorism. Today in our region and in many other parts of the world, they enter into an alliance with terrorists. They arrange meetings with terrorists and negotiate with them. They provide terrorists with money and weapons so that they can carry on their terrorist activities. They support the Munafeqeen grouplet who have admitted to assassinating thousands of people in the country. They took this grouplet off their "list of terrorist organizations".
They claim that they support democracy. They say that they are after democracy and the right to vote, yet they strongly support the most autocratic rulers in our region and in other parts of the world. Everybody can clearly see this. This is an example of the decline of values. There is a government that claims to support human rights and democracy, yet it most strongly supports and helps governments that do not know what democracy is.
They claim to support human rights. After all, human rights are loudly promoted as an American value. They are carrying the flag of human rights, but the worst actions against human rights are carried out under the protection of America. Not only do the Americans fail to confront such actions, but they also support them. In the occupied Palestinian lands, the shameless Zionist thugs have been openly trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation for 65 years. But the Americans do not even frown at them. They even help and support the Zionists.
They claim that they support peoples, yet they confront peoples wherever there is a popular movement for freedom and reform, wherever there is a revolutionary movement against evil.
They claim that they are the wealthiest nation and government in the world. Of course, America is a wealthy country. It has all the necessary natural resources, above and below the surface of the earth. But the performance of their politicians has been so bad that today America has the most indebted government in the world. America's debts are as big as its gross domestic product. For a country, nothing is more disgraceful than this.
They claim to support freedom, yet there is no other country in the world whose incarceration rate is as high as that of America. America has a population of around three hundred million with the highest proportion of prison population in the world. Besides, there are fake kangaroo courts in America. Of course, in their movies and TV series, they show a different picture of courts: courts with specific procedures. These things are only true in Hollywood productions, in the life of movie characters. The truth is something else.
They claim that they have a proud people. American governments have humiliated and misguided their people, just as the Holy Quran says about the Pharaoh: "Pharaoh led his people astray instead of leading them aright." [The Holy Quran, 20: 79] They have led their own people astray. They keep the facts from their own people. The 99 percent movement, the anti-Wall Street movement, has been launched in spite of the fact that the people of America are not aware of many of the facts. If the people of America were aware of those facts, this movement would be intensified more than ten times. The people of America are under the yoke of the Zionists.
Is it not a disgrace for a government that its presidential candidates speak in a way in their electoral campaigns to make the Zionists happy and to prove their obedience to them? In the electoral debates between the two presidential candidates, each candidate tries his best to express his obedience to the Jewish population of Palestine, to the Zionists, to Israeli capitalists. This is because they are under the yoke of the Zionists. In spite of the greatness of their country and in spite of the scientific advances their country has made, American politicians have brought their people under the yoke of a group of Zionists.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s Speech to Students, Oct 31, 2012
source : hawzahnews
