Big Dogs Weblog

We Can’t Impose Our Values, Just Our Will

by Big Dog on Jun 2, 2009 at 18:48 Political

In a BBC interview, Barack Obama stated that the US cannot impose its values on other countries and cited this belief as one of the reasons it is important to shut down Guantanamo.

“The danger I think is when the United States or any country thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture.” Breitbart

It is interesting that we cannot impose our values on other countries but it is perfectly OK, according to Obama, to impose our will as in the case of Israel. More on that shortly. Now I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that we cannot impose our values on other countries and I will go farther than Obama who stated that Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and religion are universal principles. Those are all subject to the interpretations of the countries involved. If Muslim countries do not want to tolerate another religion that is their business as long as they do not go around killing other people who do not believe what they do.

If they want to decide who can speak freely and who cannot, that is their business. However, when they start imposing their beliefs on America then I have a problem. They cannot come here and dictate the terms. They cannot come here and say what is allowed to be said and what is not. Unfortunately, our government has been complicit in fostering this attitude just as the British government has. The result there has been greater influence of Sharia Law and it will no doubt come here as long as we continue to ignore the intrusion.

I draw the line on what we can and cannot impose on others when their actions affect us. The attack on 9/11 required a response and that meant we needed to impose our will on the enemy. When adversaries engage each other each tries to impose his will on the other. This is just as true in a sporting event as it is in war.

It is amazing to me that Obama feels we cannot impose our values on other countries but that we can impose our will. Obama wants a two state solution for Israel and has been pressuring the Israelis to accept that idea even though they are not agreeable to it. The Israelis support self governance for the Palestinians but are not open to the two state solution.

The Obama administration has been pressuring Israel to accept this idea and has been using the threat of cutting military support to the country as the punishment for not acquiesing to the Won. The Obama people say that a two state solution will happen and are pressuring the Israelis to stop building in disputed territory but the Jews in Israel are not amenable to that. Haaretz has a piece up that basically calls on Obama to concern himself with other things. The piece discusses that instead of dismantling settlements Obama would do better to dismantle the Iranian nuclear program.

Israel seems to have its own fodder in the battle of coercion. The piece makes it clear that if Obama, described as the fly hovering above the elephant, continues to pressure Israel then Jerusalem will reassess its special relationship with Washington and might stop using its veto to end anti-American decisions in the United nations Security Council. That would certainly throw water on the Obama administration and make it harder for the sainted Won to manipulate things in the UN to the advantage of America. The piece is not necessarily against the two state solution or the dismantling of the disputed settlements, it merely outlines potential problems in defeating Obama on this initiative. In so doing, it demonstrates how complex the issue is.

I just want to know why we are free to impose our will on another country. Obama is right about imposing our values on others and I hope he has the same attitude on others imposing their values on us.

Values are one thing but telling a country how it has to run (in the absence of victory in war) is no more acceptable. Would we like it if the Israelis told us that we had to dismantle towns on the US Mexican border because having them there upsets the Mexicans? How would we like it if the Israelis said that the only way to fix our illegal immigrant problem is to make Mexico a state or to give amnesty (though liberals would rejoice)?

We should run our country and allow the Israelis to run theirs.

Other source(s):
al-Reuters

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Tags: Iran, Israel, Obama, palestine, two state