Sunday evening anger

So Tony Blair is trying to convince himself that he did the right thing by toadying up to George Bush and committing British troops to Iraq and Afghanistan. As reported in CNN:

"If we want to secure our way of life, there is no alternative but to fight for it," he told a joint sitting of the Australian parliament in Canberra on Monday.

Well Tony, "our way of life" seems to be different all over the world. In Afghanistan, mainstream clerics and citizens want to execute a Muslim because he converted to Christianity. George is "troubled" by this. Condi calls President Karzai to explain the unacceptablilty of the situation. In that same country, village elders smiled and chatted with Canadian soldiers and then dispersed instantly (and knowingly?), when a young rebel ran out and slammed an axe into a Canadian soldier's head. And yet:

...in the struggle to defend global values, Blair said there was no prosperity without security, and no security without justice. He said a global alliance should be pushing to defend universal values wherever they were under threat.

Here's the thing. There are no universal values of justice. We can't even enact and apply laws equally and justly within our own countries. Don't pretend that bringing democracy to Iraq or Afghanistan or any other country is an altruistic gift that has no political or economic -- or cultural -- strings attached. Don't pretend that you are not filled with blind arrogance and a firm belief that your values, laws, god and way of life are superior to those of the countries you invade.

Don't get me wrong, I believe that any country that tries to run itself according to the laws of a medieval (or older) religion is a ridiculous enterprise that, when left to itself, will only lead to bloodshed and failure. But such countries should be permited to work out their problems without our "help". Unfortunately, when European and North American interests interfere, the misery of these failing states is usually prolonged. The only way to help is for the keepers of these "universal values" to stop selling arms and chemicals.

George and Tony: if you insist on spreading universal values, call it for what it is: an attempt to forcfully stamp Judeo-Christian-Capitalist values on every other culture on the planet. After all, the New York Times reports that Bush "was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons" according to a confidential memo written by David Manning, Blair's top foreign policy adviser.

Will Iran be the next country to bend over to be freedomized by George and Tony?