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The American conception of normative self-justification is traced to the long period of colonial existence under British domination to argue that disentangling the dual American legacy that is blind to its own faults & acts so mercilessly is necessary to understanding state terrorism. The pathological dualism of America's global role is asserted to be weakening the emergent framework of global cooperative arrangements, & eroding the framework of international law. The pattern of subordinating moral & legal guidelines in pursuit of strategic goals is asserted to represent a fundamental breakdown of rule-governed relationships among states, & is related to cases of nonreciprocity of American conduct in the atomic attacks on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, the geopolitical frustrations of the Korean & Vietnamese War. The patterns of the self serving US & Japanese discourse are concluded require further study & challenge to the moralizing war myth that is coupled with dehumanization of the enemy. J. Harwell