reed writes

By Lord Anthony -  guest author

Let’s face it, they don’t know their place……..

Ratings for Oprah Winfrey are down, one reported cause is her public support of Barack Obama. Seems she has alienated a large chunk of white females in the age-group for her show, those in their middle years.

 

There were no headlines about this in our daily newspapers…no feature stories in magazines and nothing on television either and certainly, nothing in The House of Commons.

The picture on the left is what’s left of a United Nations Peacekeeping Post in southern Lebanon. 
A Canadian peacekeeper was murdered here in July 2006.

The Israelis bombed it to rubble and killed all four peacekeepers with a 500 kg precision-guided bomb. We mourn those soldiers.

International Peacekeeping Day (Thursday May 29th), was established in 2002. It’s the day we should have been giving thanks that there are still men and women courageous enough to put their lives on the line for world peace. The 29th of May was chosen for the celebration because on that day in 1948 the
first mission, the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), began operations
with a group of unarmed military observers in Palestine under a new flag and a
new mission. "A mission of peace , without
precedent in human history. It was an attempt  to counter violence with tolerance, might with
moderation, and war with peace."

It’s also a day to note that support for peacekeeping is declining in the very country that spearheaded the original idea – our own Canada.

The Canadian government no longer cares much about peacekeeping. It prefers instead, to focus on combat operations dedicated not to peace, but to war…and "pseudo war" at that.

When I checked with our government, a very nice person in the Speakers Office had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if there had been anything placed on the agenda to recognize International Peacekeeper Day. "Let me just check", she said. "I’m looking, but as far as I can see there’s nothing."

No one in the PMO knew about it and neither did the parliamentary clerk’s office.

So that gives you some idea how the Harper government regards peacekeeping. It’s a non-starter.

I observed my 3 minutes of silence alone.

Finally Some Realism On Canada and Afghanistan From A Good Source With Some Inside Knowledge

Ever since we’ve been involved in Afghanistan, the media have been enthralled by being on the frontlines of a "real" war. They’ve extolled it; glorified it; wept over it; and parrotted the government line on it.

From very near the  beginning, Newspapers, Television and Radio…public and private…swallowed the old Hillier position, hook line and sinker right up to the General’s hand on the pole. His famous "scumbag" luncheon in Ottawa, thrown at taxpayer expense, was wolfed down by a collection of eager reporters and columnists, who hung on his every word.

The mainstream media embedded themselves valiantly, reporting daily on developments – and monitoring events as they learned about them from the "official" spokespeople. These "officials" were seldom named however, in keeping with the Harper government’s penchant for total secrecy around everything it does no matter what or where.

Esprit de Corps is an independent military magazine edited by a former soldier, who writes a column for The Halifax Chronicle.

Must Reading.

By Lord Anthony -  guest author

From last week’s NYT

…."friends of the Clintons saying that Bill Clinton is musing about the possibility that the vice presidency might be his wife’s best path to the presidency if she loses the nomination……"

Reed Writes recently posted the fears of Doris Lessing about an early assassination for the first black president who is also antiwar.

Bill Clinton is a former so-called leader of the so-called free world and a so-called Rhodes scholar.

He knows better than most of us on the planet how words fit together, unlike his successor who doesn’t have English as a second language.

Bill Clinton knows exactly how vice-presidents suddenly become presidents.

How could he even go there?

Just when you thought it wasn’t possible, The Clintonista  drag political thinking to an unimaginable  new low.

Bill, This is not an opportunity scenario for your wifey.

Take your dirty mind and your big hair and go fishing for the rest of your life so Hillary can say, I honestly don’t know what he’s doing since he retired.

Israel and Canada: Strange Friends at a Strange Time

Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has some glowing words for Canada’s Prime Minister "Steve" as he calls him.

A "relaxed" Olmert, who is under investigation for fraud and "financial improprieties" by Israeli police, told The Toronto Star’s Oakland Ross this week that "I’m looking forward with great excitement to meet personally Steve Harper, your prime minister," Olmert said. "He appears to me, just from talking to him on the phone so many times, a fantastic guy."

Olmert referred to Harper repeatedly as "Steve" and pronounced "Steve" a great friend and ally.

That was about all the information that the hour long, thousand word interview yielded, although we did learn that  the Israeli leader wore "a navy-blue suit with a green-checked tie" and betrayed no hint of political mortality and instead seemed highly confident of himself and his political future, despite the challenges he faces…"

• There were no questions about Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinian civilians,
• no questions about Israel building more illegal developments on Palestinian land
• and no questions about why Israel refused to cooperate with Canada’s military investigation of the death of Canadian Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener.                         
• The Major was killed by a direct hit from an American-made Israeli 500 kg bomb, after a day-long attack on his U.N. patrol post.
• A Canadian military inquiry found that our Major’s death was "preventable" and that the Israeli Defence Forces were "responsible".
• It wasn’t an issue of sufficient importance, however to warrant a question by the Star.

About all we learned was that Olmert thinks "Steve" is the greatest and he’s "looking forward with great excitement to meet personally…..he appears to me, just from talking to him on the phone so many times, a fantastic guy."

Harper has bought the Israeli line that the 8-hour attack on the U.N. post and the gps-guided 500kg bomb that killed our soldier, was an "accident" and we’re all quite sure that Olmert is very happy with that. Happy to avoid the charge that it was a war crime. But Olmert needn’t worry about Harper making any sort of protest to anyone about our soldier’s death.

Olmert’s refusal to cooperate with our military board’s investigation is the Harper Government’s sleeping dog at the moment…and clearly Olmert, Harper and The Toronto Star would like to keep it that way.

When it comes to the Middle East, The Toronto Star knows what its readers want and its reporters know what the paper wants and it can be summed up in one word: "pap".

But "sleeping dogs" have a way of waking up eventually.

This story is not going to go away. Our Major Hess-von Kruedener was murdered and as Shakespeare put it, "Murder will out".

Update I received a link from a curmudgeonly friend; it pointed to a
recently-published article by Atlantic and written by Jeffrey Goldberg. It’s a
moving – even heart-rending account of Israel’s
dilemma.