POLITICS

I can't believe it, but I just read an op-ed by the surly Pat Buchanan with which I actually largely agree.

Who Commissioned Us to Remake the World? » Patrick J. Buchanan - Official Website

"Before leaving for Moscow, (U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul) told NPR’s “Morning Edition”: “We’re not going to get into the business of dictating Russia’s path to democracy. … We’re just going to support what we like to call ‘universal values’ — not American values, not Western values, universal values.”

But what, exactly, are these “universal values”?

And who are we to impose them on other nations? Did Divine Providence assign us this mission? Who do we Americans think we are?"

This is something I've thought a lot about over the years, any time it seems to me that we are "sticking our nose in" and playing the part of the Enforcer. Just who do we think we are?

I love my country. I come from a long line of military family, West Point graduates, diehard voters and volunteers and activists. We all have strong political leanings, patriotic values, hell I get misty at a good rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. But yeah just who the hell do we think we are? When our own system clearly isn't working so well, why is it we feel compelled to try to force it on everyone else?

If the bigger guy is beating up on the little guy, sure--I feel we have the responsibility, as one of the world's stronger countries, to step in and help, to help stop ethnic cleansing, mass murder, etc. But why must we always spout how the American style of Democracy is the morally righteous and the only right way to live, and embark on campaigns to spread OUR way of living to the rest of the world? It seems to be not just an American fault but a radical Islamic fault as well. It isn't much comfort to know we share this way of thinking, in some ways, with the people who engineered 9/11.

Doesn't it ever occur to anyone that our pride and love for our country and our way of living is great, but that other countries also have pride and love for theirs?

Who decides what is right, and why does everyone else have to conform to it? Take for an example the mundane dress aspect of the hijab or niqab (veiled version), worn by some women in Islamic cultures/backgrounds. Some people in other countries see the hijab/niqab as a glaring example of oppression of women. Some Islamic women also see it that way and have rebelled against wearing them. However there is a significant portion of the Islamic nation of women who express no such notion and feel it is their cultural standard, gives them more independence, promotes their freedom and their beliefs. They feel oppressed when it is discriminated against, or even outlawed:

France's Veil Ban Goes into Effect | Europe | English
(old news link)

Of course there is oppression of women in the Middle East. Can anyone argue with a straight face that there isn't oppression of women going on in the USA right now? It's worse over there, I know. But are there ANY countries that don't have murder, cruelty, rape, or discrimination? What makes our modern leaders so convinced that we are the moral leaders of the entire world?

Buchanan points out we can't even make up our own minds here about what is "universally right":

"What is the universally right stand on capital punishment — the Rick Perry position in Texas or the Andrew Cuomo position in New York?"

While I disgree with theories that the USA would be much better off by becoming an isolationist society--we still have responsibilities to the world--I think that our leaders have long been confusing responsibilities with greed and blind pride.

"If America wishes to lead the world, let us do it by example, as we once did, not by hectoring every nation on earth to adopt the American way, which as of now, does not seem to be working all that well for Americans."