noble

obama addressed the british parliament today - the bbc described how the house fell silent when he began to speak, as if won over by his aura as opposed to them just being polite.

during his speech obama said: "we are the nations most willing to stand up for the values of tolerance and self-determination that lead to peace and dignity."
these are wonderful words.
words to live by.
words to be proud of.
yet somehow they don't ring true - they are tarnished by their frequent misuse and the way they are often ignored. that is why there is often confusion about how the two governments want or do. libya is a somewhere they believe they can go, but burma or zimbabwe are not.
add in the implict claim that democracy is the best system in the world, and it is 'our' democracy that is the model that others should adopt (yeah it gave us dubya for two terms and looks to be supporting david cameron: proof positive that it may not be such a good system.
no thought is given to the fact that some people want to live under a monachy, or a theocracy, or under military rule or any other system. no, we assume that they want to, and that they must, live under 'our' version of democracy.
perhaps the lead that obama and cameron need to give the world is an extended period of non-interference with other countries.
it would be a novel foreign policy.
it won't happen - because regardless of the noble words most of the west's foreign policy is not about promoting equality but about securing economic or military advantage.