REALLY Waiting for Superman

The 12-year-old was doomed.  In the chaos, as smoke and tear gas filled the street, he had made a wrong turn.  By the time he realized he had headed down a blind alley, the soldier had caught up to him, cutting off his only escape route.  As the soldier raised his rifle, the boy saw past him people running by the mouth of the alley.  In the noise and confusion, though, no one would hear him if he screamed for help.  No one could have done anything anyway.  The boy closed his eyes and waited, praying it wouldn't hurt.  Then he heard the gunshot.

He heard the gunshot?  Was that even possible?  Could you actually hear the gunshot that killed you?  And how could he still be here, alive, wondering about the possibility of hearing the gunshot that killed you?  The boy opened his eyes and saw red.  Not blood.  Not rage.  Literal, simple red, waving in his face, blocking his view.  A cape.  A cape worn by a man.  A man who now walked forward, unharmed by the panicked shooting of the stunned soldier, until he could reach out, grab the gun, and crush it with one hand.  The soldier ran off.  The man in the cape turned and looked at the boy.  He smiled and then, amazingly, he flew away.

Always satisfying when this sort of thing happens.  We cheer when Superman (or, lately, Iron Man, Captain America, or any other costumed righter-of-wrongs) swoops in to save the day.  As Americans, we take a special pleasure in watching foreign dictators or their minions receive their comeuppance.  Superman, after all, fought not only for truth and justice, but also the American way.  He was our proxy.  No wonder, then, that, when Americans read about governmental militiamen gunning down innocent protesters in Syria or genocidal activities in Africa, we desperately want someone to do something.  We want Superman to swoop in and save the day.

Or if not Superman, then the next best thing: America's armed forces.  As Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright once argued with then-Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell about his reluctance to intervene in the Balkans conflicts, saying something to the effect of, "What's the point of having this wonderful military if we never use it?"

Sounds kind of awful when you think about it, the American military as soon-to-expire gift-card: Better use it or lose it, whether we need a new flatscreen TV (or democratic regime in the Middle East) or not.

Superman had the advantage of being an individual (and fictional, but that's something else altogether).  He could act purely on principle and do what he thought was right, needing no congressional approval or public-opinion research.  Of course, if he had polled his constituents, he would undoubtedly have found overwhelming approval for actions like the one descirbed above.  "Go get him, Supe!"  At the same time, most Americans are understandably leery about committing our own real-life troops and treasure in similar activities, even though the US military, when compared to those of most other nations, is in a comparatively Kryptonian position.

The US (and all countries) acts in its own national interests, and one can argue that the mere overthrow of distasteful leaders does not automatically meet those criteria.  We wonder, though, what  negative effect it has on a nation's collective psyche, when its citizens yearn emotionally to do the right thing, and understand that the power to do the right thing exists, but must come to grips with the fact that the right thing, for any number of realpolitik reasons, simply cannot be done.