Wrap yourself in a rainbow and carry a big stick
“Speak softly and carry a
big stick” summed up American President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy in
the early years of the 20th century. “Wrap yourself in a rainbow and carry
a big stick” is becoming US foreign policy in the early years of the
21st century.
The latest example of the United States forcing LGBT views upon
smaller countries who depend on American aid and trade comes from the Dominican
Republic.
In 2013 President Obama appointed Wally Brewster Ambassador to
the Caribbean nation of 10 million people. Mr Brewster, a top LGBT fundraiser
for the President, took up residence with his husband, Bob Satawake. Both men
had been gay rights activists back in the US.
They have brought a reforming zeal to the Dominican Republic.
This week the New York
Times ran a profile of Mr Brewster, painting him as a
benevolent tutor in human rights for a benighted, largely-Catholic nation. It
closed with a note of gratitude to the ambassador from a young gay man: “I have
no words to thank you for being here and give me and my lover hope to fight and
stay together.”
What was missing in the flattering profile is a long list of
complaints in the local media about the bullying tactics used by Mr Brewster to
promote LGBT rights, ranging from outright threats to creating and funding local
organisations.
• The embassy funded and launched a local LGBT Chamber of
Commerce on March 2. The director of USAID, the agency which dispenses American
foreign aid, Alexandria Panehal, said that she was making a million
US dollars available for the LGBT community and political candidates who would
support LGBT policies. The US Embassy quickly denied that this would happen –
but it did not deny that Ms Panehal had promised financial help to LGBT
candidates.
• Last year Mr Brewster, at a
Thanksgiving Day address to the US Chamber of Commerce in
Santo Domingo, the capital, responded to “a few politicians who have criticised
the embassy and myself for being too involved in Dominican affairs”. He said
that the close relations between the two countries and the huge US investment
in the Dominican Republic gave him every right to do so. He taunted his
critics, telling them “go to the embassy and give us back your visa”.
Strong-arming smaller countries into accepting LGBT rights is an
explicit element in the Obama Administration’s foreign policy. The
half-dozen gay US ambassadors, including Mr Brewster, have openly acknowledged that
trade agreements are being used to advance “equality” and “tolerance” for gays
and lesbians. “We know firsthand that US interests are best served when we
pursue policies that also advance our values. That’s why trade policy is among
our most promising tools,” they say on the White House website.
One sentence in Mr Brewster’s Thanksgiving Day speech summarised
the LGBT neo-colonialism that is becoming a hallmark of US diplomacy around the
world: “Our two countries are interwoven so intricately, at times it is
impossible to tell them apart.”
For Dominicans these words must have an ominous ring. The
blustering Ambassador has obviously not read the history of the nation in which
he resides. Over the last 100 years, the United States has trampled upon the
sovereignty of the Dominican Republic time and time again. Forget about
“intricate interweaving”. Too often “What's
yours is mine and what's mine is my own,” has been the theme of
US-Dominican relations. Only abysmal ignorance or towering arrogance explains
Mr Brewster’s insensitivity to Dominican sovereignty.
Has he not read his own history?
In 1916 the US invaded the Dominican Republic and ruled it until
1924. The occupation was largely benevolent, but was resented by Dominicans.
For several years there was guerrilla resistance which was harshly repressed.
From 1930 to 1961, the country was ruled by a corrupt tyrant,
Rafael Trujillo. Bad as he was the US supported him. “He may be a son of a
bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch,” Secretary of State Cordell Hull reputedly
said. But the US eventually tired of Trujillo, withdrew its support, and he was
assassinated, possibly with CIA support.
In 1965 President Johnson ordered another invasion, although US
troops withdrew a few weeks later.
In other words, based on the experience of the last hundred
years, Dominicans have well-founded fears of American economic, cultural,
political and military domination. In a recent public statement the Catholic
bishops of the Dominican Republic complained bitterly that
LGBT pressure from the American Embassy is eroding the country’s sovereignty.
As the bishops point out, so sensitive are the Dominicans to
foreign meddling that non-interference is written into the country’s
constitution:
The sovereignty of the Dominican Nation, a State free
and independent of any foreign power, is inviolable. None of the public powers organized
by this Constitution may realize or permit the realization of acts that
constitute a direct or indirect intervention in the internal or external
affairs of the Dominican Republic or an interference that infringes the
personality and integrity of the State and of the attributes that are
recognized and consecrated in this Constitution. The principle of
non-intervention constitutes an invariable norm of Dominican international
policy.
The bishops have insisted that Dominican government lodge an
official protest against the American ambassador’s high-handed attempts at a
cultural revolution. It can’t come too soon.
Reprinted with permission from MercatorNet.
