As the U.S. attempts to spread democratic revolution around the world through the sharing of our hope, something insect-like is eating away at our national fabric and forcing growing numbers of us to wonder if the emporer might eventually not have clothes. It’s our country’s repeated failure to adhere to international agreements.

I’m not talking about U.S. failure to heed corrupt multilateral organizations like the United Nations or bureaucratic-till-the-point-of-pointlessness organizations like the World Court or the European Union. On those matters I remain unyielding in criticism until they change. It’s something else.

The U.S. is starting to get a reputation for playing very dirty around international trade matters. Via Club for Growth, an article on NAFTA says there’s been a growing pattern of global scofflawing that doesn’t become us at all. Apparently, we violate every agreement we sign and get ruled against all the time by the WTO. Shamelessly our government just keeps doing it. The Spectator article linked above describes in graphic detail all the shenanigans going on with Canadian lumber. I’m starting to get disturbed by it, because it seems to be part of a pattern.

If we sign an agreement, we need to obey the agreement – in good faith. Otherwise, we shouldn’t bother to sign. Nobody gets penalized for not signing.

If we preach free trade, we shouldn’t muck around with tariffs and agricultural subsidies. We’ve seen that happen in the past six years.

If we tell smaller countries we want to encourage free trade, we mustn’t throw out words of discouragement in front of them when they try to take us up on our offer, as Miguel Buitrago noticed in this article here.

Sure, we might get away with it, but what about the long-lasting damage? If we wrong Canada, are they really going to forget? What happens we people suddenly don’t like us and we don’t have as clue as to why?

Every one of these violations describe undercuts our whole nation’s efforts to encourage democratic revolution around the world, the most strategically important thing we can do to prevent another 9-11 and make the world a better place. Why are we undercutting ourselves with this rubbish? Why are we encouraging short-termery, underhandedness and every man for himself on trade by our example? Instead of a world community? Who are these people in our government who are doing this to us and why are they doing it instead of living up to the ideals – the basic ideals – of democracy? More to the point, how can we identify them and get rid of them?

This may well be a growing issue as more countries seek to join the democratic revolution around the world. The U.S. government needs to be careful of what it wishes for if it ha no intention of living up to its ideals in a universal way.