Whose values?

There's an interesting pair of judgements in an Economist leader about America and Barack Obama 'after Iraq'. It tells us, first, that Obama 'does not subscribe to the neocon dream that America can intimidate every foe and expect the whole world to adopt its values'. Leaving aside the intimidation component, let us note how the putative expectation is described: that the whole world should adopt America's values. But are the relevant values so exclusive? Perhaps not. Just a few lines further down in the same piece, reference is made to America's 'embroilment in the benighted regions of the world'. Benighted? By what standard, I wonder, are such regions said to be benighted? Perhaps the writer just meant benighted according to American values. But I doubt it. In any case, if he or she wanted an alternative moral measure, it isn't difficult to find. You can find it here and here - that is to say, in internationally-agreed conventions embodying values that are American only because they are applicable to all of humankind.