Should we fear America’s punishment?

America’s tantrum over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmad al Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber (in case you’ve been in a coma for the last 20 years), seems to have finally petered out.  Following ill-informed letters and phone-calls from the head of the FBI, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and the US President Barack Obama remonstrating over the decision and attempting to force Kenny McAskill to make a different course of action they appear to have calmed down somewhat.

Indeed a state department spokesman has said that there would be no knee jerk reaction to the decision insisting that:

… we are very close allies, and I don’t think we’re looking to punish anybody, per se.

So what are they saying here, they’ve decided not to “punish” Scotland?  Or that they are going to “punish” Scotland just that it’s not going to be so overt? 

The key issue here as far as I’m concerned are that the Scottish Justice Secretary made a decision that was in his give, not in the give of the US Secretary of State, or anybody elses for that matter.  Regardless of what you think about the decision itself you must accept that it was not and is not the place of the US government to interfere in the internal affairs of any country, if they want to “punish” countries like Scotland or anywhere else for that matter it would merely serve to confirm what many people already believe about the country.

I’m not sure that a country that maintains a death penalty, shoots down civilian air liners (and fails to apologise), has been seriously implicated in the use of torture of captives, and has broken international law is really in a position to be shouting the odds about moral or compassionate decisions.  I certainly won’t be looking to learn any lessons from them.

Kenny McAskill at Holyrood, and more indirectly Westminster, have done absolutely the right thing in resisting any and all pressure from the US authorities to usurp the decision making process in this case.  Westminster would do well to learn lessons from McAskill on this one and grow some balls when it comes to dealing with the US Government, we are not answerable to the US and we should not be expected to back their every decision or point-of-view.

Independent nations would do well to remember that they are just that, independent, they don’t have to answer to the US, they don’t have to do as they are told by the US, and they don’t need to fear the US punishing non-compliance with their will.  The world community is based on diplomacy, not capitulation, countries must be able to abide by their own systems and customs without unnecessary and irrational caterwauling.

So the US aren’t going to punish us!  Laughable really, their government acts like a surly teenagers throwing their weight around and trying to act like they think grown-ups should act, and like real grown-ups the other nations of the world should treat such contemptible behaviour with the contempt it deserves, simultaneously chastising and nurturing the juvenile into adulthood.

Fortunately Obama has shown some potential to be a figure of maturity in foreign policy, let’s hope we see a coming of age before somebody decides the surly world teenager needs slapped down.