It might be related because some people apparently have universal rights - for instance, marines on holiday in Sinai - while others only have the right to be killed. It's related because the universal rights can be taken from you depending on the definitions someone with "enough political clout" will be using at a given time. So what I am wondering about is therefore what exactly the difference between universal and "democratic" rights(or as the suits in Washington would say: values (automatically?) held in a democracy) is. Also, how you can spot the difference - that is, between universal and democratic rights. And finally - if there actually can be a difference between them, or if that is impossible by definition. I suspect others might wonder about the same.

So far, what I see happening is that by definition the US is the biggest democracy in the world and hold the universal values highly. Therefore, what the US will do should always be seen as something that can be defended as justified under these universal rights. Stands to reason (to clarify, I do not think that argument holds). That means a great many things, but mainly that there is no end to what suddenly might be justified, and there is very little that cannot be done with justification. In fact, it seems there must happen something (please, notice the irony) unspeakably terrible - before it could be said that this was not something that could be defended. In which case it will be clearly stated anyway that this theoretical incident, which anyone could see is not something that can be defended, is in fact not justified. This then reinforces how the rest of the things done would follow a strict code of conduct. So what happens - as I see it - is that it must be obvious that we are the keepers of those universal rights, even when individuals are clearly breaking them, which they of course would not do intentionally in most occations.

What is it about this that is not merely disgruntled whining, though? It is this: if it is possible for a country to be justified in doing just about everything - how can it be possible to tell if what they are doing is right or wrong? I guess this was a very elaborate way of saying "who watches the watchmen". But there you have it. Context matters completily. And it is here it might be interesting to consider what exactly the difference is between democratic and universal rights/values.