Rings American being cruel (7)
I believe the answer is:
callous
'cruel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'rings american' is the wordplay.
'rings' becomes 'callo' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
'callo'+'us'='CALLOUS'
'being' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for callous that I've seen before include "Insensitive, cruel" , "Cruel and unfeeling" , "Not feeling" , "Cruel or unsympathetic" , "Hard-hearted" .)