IS ROBERT KAGAN ALSO "ANTI-AMERICAN"?

(h/t Matt Duss at The Wonk Room)

In an interview with Der Speigel, Robert Kagan, a prominent neo-con, speaks as if he doubts America is God's Chosen Nation:

SPIEGEL: Don't words like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib mean something to you when you think about the negative aspects of the Bush legacy?

Kagan: Of course they do. But I don't believe that they have damaged the reputation of the United States as consistently or even irreparably as many believe. Damage was done, clearly; but it can be repaired. Nor can anyone believe that our image in the past was always so wonderful. We Americans were never the angels sent from heaven that some in the world claim today.

SPIEGEL: But, in the minds of many Americans, the United States is God's own country…

Kagan: Yes, that's what they say, "God's own country." But one can find actions in American history -- in times of war, for example, or when there was a perceived threat to national security -- that are worse than Guantanamo.

SPIEGEL: But that doesn't excuse the human rights violations at Guantanamo.

Kagan: Of course it doesn’t. But take the Second World War, for example. That was when our widely revered president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, locked thousands of Americans of Japanese descent into camps because they were supposedly not to be trusted -- and all of that merely because of their racial origins. There were also offences during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, another highly respected president. And, in the same breath, we should deplore the excesses during the witch hunt against communists in the McCarthy era. In difficult times, the American Constitution comes under fire. The good news is that, as the threat diminishes, things quickly go back to normal.