What is the real story of America?

The spreading racial riots in the United States, sparked by the shooting of a black American teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, further weakens America's claim to moral leadership in the world. And it could not have come at a worse time, considering how it is also fast losing its authority as policeman of the world and its image as sole military superpower.

America no longer scares Russia and China. Recent events show how both countries, in their individual capacities, have thumbed their noses at the United States and got away with it. Their provocations and intransigence are becoming bolder and more pronounced. It will not be long before smaller troublemakers like North Korea and Iran outgrow their submission to sanctions and actually try to emulate their elders.

It would have been all right if America gets to keep its moral authority intact because that would be sufficient to keep its allies and embolden them enough to maintain the standoff against the forces that seek to destroy the democratic way of life. But that moral authority, rooted in the strength of its democracy, is now under assault, not by its enemies, but by its very own citizens.

America is imploding. The ideals and principles it seeks to vigorously protect and promote in other countries of the world, sometime even against the will of the very people in these countries, are being assaulted by its own people, right in the very heart of America itself. For all its anti-racism rhetoric and hypocritical political correctness, it is proving to be the most racist country in the world.

When a black person is shot by a white person in America, the circumstances quickly get obscured by the color of the protagonists. And whatever judicial process may ensue, the result is always of no moment if it is not of the color that is expected. What is happening in Ferguson and in other places in America, where innocent people are attacked, their cars burned and their businesses looted, exposes the long simmering racism that has finally erupted in its ugliest form.

How can the United States pretend to step into and intervene in other global conflicts in the world whose roots find their way into deep-seated racial divides? By what authority does the United States exercise the right to bomb racially conflicted people in racially conflicted countries when it itself is being rocked silly by its own racial conflicts?

It may be argued that many of the ongoing riots in America were instigated by those who simply wish to create trouble, as evidenced by the looting which has truly nothing to do with the racial context of the riots. But why is nobody stopping these outside provocateurs? Nobody is stopping these provocateurs because their acts, no matter how unlawful and uncalled for, actually serve the end for which the protests were made.

The criminal acts are tolerated because they help bring to the fore and give shape and sound to the anger that the racial rioters feel. But give the rioters a different look and a different angst, and then change the location of the chaos, and you might think you are in a different country. You might even think you are in a country where America is trying to force its own will.

Where is the democracy that America is trying so hard to sell to other countries, especially those just waking up to responsible nationhood. True, taking to the streets is the rawest form of democratic free expression. But why are the brakes not applied when things get out of hand, such as when looters and vandals take over? Where are the proverbial cooler heads from within the same ranks? Or is it anything goes when you suffer from the victim's complex?

When a grand jury found no cause to press charges against the white Ferguson police officer who shot and killed a black teenager, the decision was roundly criticized and in fact opposed for being racially influenced. Nobody stopped to consider that the American justice system actually worked and refused to crumble under the pressure to quiet, appease and mollify.

If Americans keep this up, this racial rioting that is being splashed very prominently and extensively across the globe in every form of media, whatever remains of its credibility will be further eroded and eroded severely. Americans cannot keep this up while their country remains heavily involved in the affairs of other people in countries of conflict all over the world.

If America wants to keep the ability to assert its moral righteousness in the world, it must stop the folly of racial rioting promptly. Americans must remember that what is taking place is far worse than any errant policy that their government may have come up and chosen to impose and implement. Government policies are the handiwork of political administrations and can be easily remedied by any change in administration.

On the contrary, anything exhibited by a people, in this case by the Americans themselves, will leave a far more lasting impression on others, will tell a far different story that what had previously been believed. Administrations come and go with their successes and failures. But people are what they are. If Americans cannot live among themselves, what right will they have to tell others how to live? You cannot bomb others for killing each other while riots also run rampant at home.