Politics & Power Quote by John Olver

Olver’s line is built to sting in two directions at once: outward, toward an international audience whose approval the U.S. once treated as optional, and inward, toward Americans who like their power paired with moral certainty. “Moral high ground” is a deliberately old-fashioned phrase, almost Boy Scout in its purity, which makes the indictment sharper when he claims it’s been squandered. He’s not arguing that America is weaker in tanks or budgets; he’s arguing the country has voluntarily surrendered the one advantage that can’t be bought back quickly: legitimacy.

The subtext is a rebuke of the post-9/11 bargain the Bush era tried to sell - that safety requires bending rules, and that allies will fall in line because they always do. Olver flips that logic. By saying the administration “undermined the war on terror,” he reframes “enhanced interrogation,” extraordinary rendition, and detention practices not as regrettable excesses but as strategic self-sabotage. The move is political and rhetorical: if tactics are “outlawed by international treaty,” then they’re not just controversial, they’re outside the nation’s claimed identity as a rule-maker and rule-keeper.

Context matters: this is the mid-2000s argument over Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and the legal contortions of the “war” framing. Olver’s most pointed jab is “condemned by even our closest friends” - a reminder that the U.S. wasn’t merely defying enemies, it was embarrassing partners. He’s warning that unilateral power has a hidden cost: isolation that turns every future crisis into a solo act, with fewer voices willing to vouch for American intentions.