On foreign perspective…

Consider if you will, Mexico, having a problem with someone in the US (Sheriff Joe Arpio, notorious on immigration, for example), and to deal with their problem, the Mexican military began shooting rockets into Arizona, killing some US citizens while destroying US private property and infrastructure. On top of that, as the Mexican military continued to step up their attacks on trying to get Arpio, began building bases, enforcing their legal systems in suburbs of Phoenix. This would be a foreign country initiating attacks upon US soil, targeting a US citizen while taking over US land. Who’d be pissed at Mexico?

Now, let’s add to the aforementioned, with the Mexican military’s desire to get Arpio’s network of like-minded sheriffs, began expanding their range of attacks and the number of bases, including taking over Mt. Rushmore, the Alamo, and the Washington and Lincoln monuments. Think more would be pissed at Mexico?

Switch it around, and that would be the US in various areas in the world. Some areas welcome our presence, but some do not: a foreign power coming into and taking over one’s country (therefore their sovereignty), causing the loss of life and property.

We in the US have our first amendment, so how would we like a theocracy imposed whether it was by some Iranian mullahs who used force to impose Sharia law, or some Roman priests to impose laws based from the Old Testament? While trying to dismantle constitutional protection and Sharia was being preached from the Washington monument, or Old Testament rules were being preached from Mt. Rushmore and that from these foreign sources called for ‘moving beyond’ the existing cultural belief structures, again who’d be pissed?

Regardless of an objective value of a culture, using force to impose change increases fundamentalist resistance as that is the culture’s assertion of its tradition, led by the most ardent of its adherents. Someone is going to be pissed, try and garner support and raise that support against the perceived threat based on how the cultural values are perceived.