politics; books; musings on Canada and the World
Lawrence Wilkerson Speaks
Larry Wilkerson was a prominent strategic thinker and planner in the U.S. Armed Forces.
He’s a Republican and He issues a dire warning, based on cold hard analysis.
“Canadians assume that there are no dead in peacekeeping and that is why they like it.” - Jack Granatstein
Jack Granatstein is a self-proclaimed military historian who seems to think he can read the minds of Canadians.
He recently passed along the above gratuitous insult to the people of this country by purporting to explain why Canadians favour peacekeeping over war.
Granatsein stated – or mistated – that Canadians prefer peacekeeping because they think that there are fewer casualties. He implies the Canadian people…from whom our soldiers are drawn, by the way…are a lot of cowardly shirkers with their heads in the sand.
Granatstein ought to know better and the Canadian public deserve an apology.
Granatstein should understand that we’re not stupid. We know that there are casualties associated with the business of peacekeeping.
It could just be, however, that we recognize…as a People…that problems are not solved by fighting wars.
It could just be, Mr. Granatstein, that on the whole…Canadians are people of conscience.
The Granatstein quote appeared in a piece published yesterday on the CBC website… www.cbc.ca The title of the piece was itself a slap at peacekeeping:
“Lest we forget the cost of peacekeeping”
The article appears at a time of increased Canadian casualties in Afghanistan and increased public skepticism about that war. It makes a subtle effort to compare the process of peacekeeping, to what we have been doing in South Asia. It’s a kind of advertisement for the military industrial community.
Right off the bat – in the first 4 paragraphs – we get the point that the author a Mr. Robert Smol is attempting to make.
Smol compares apples with oranges by making the point that peacekeeping is every bit as dangerous as a full-scale, aggressive combat war. There is not even a nod to the higher moral values involved in peacekeeping.
When read carefully, it becomes crystal clear that both Granatstein and Smol are apologists for war and CBC is complicit by not publishing the other side of the story.
Smol closes his article with the following…
Looking at the larger picture, at least 122 Canadian peacekeepers have died while on UN assignment somewhere since 1956. The number would be much higher, of course, if we counted those who died during training or related exercises.
By comparison, 124 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan between April 2002 and July 2009 (an average of 1.4 deaths a month).
Inexplicably Smol reduces the loss of lives of our soldiers to cold hard statistics.
Also, Smol fails to point out that at least four of our soldiers in Afghanistan were killed by American planes and that at least one Canadian Peacekeeper was murdered by the military of a close ally.
And of course he doesn’t mention the death of a Canadian diplomat in the Afghan war. The full article is available at the link below.
U.S. President Barak Obama has indicated that he intends to be “honest” with Israel.
That would – if true – be a refreshing development in U.S. foreign policy; in fact it’s an essential precursor to an easing of tension in the Middle East.
On Wednesday Obama leaves on his first trip to the region and significantly – a visit to Israel is not on his agenda.
On Thursday he will make a key speech from Cairo.
The question of just how honest he will be is now the subject of hot debate.
Obama’s adventure in honesty began with a call to Israel to “freeze settlement expansion”.
Most objective observers have applauded that admonition, but have also said it doesn’t go nearly far enough. In any case, Israel is likely to thumb its nose at the suggestion.
So What Would be Enough?
The minimum that would be acceptable to the Muslim/Arab/Palestinian world would be this:
President Obama:
“It’s high time that we – The United States – were completely open and honest with our Israeli friends…both for their sake and for our own.
Over the past many decades, Israel has defied the international community in ways that have opened up a deep rift between it and a majority of nations. Before there can be peace for all in the Middle East that rift must be closed.
To close the rift, there must be a healing process and it must involve all the nations of the world, including Israel and the United States.
In order to begin that healing process, Israel must acknowledge that all of its settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including The West Bank, constitute a violation of international law.
Once that acknowledgement is made, then – and only then – will it be possible to move forward with a viable peace process.
Thankyou.”
Dear Coalition Leaders (by all means share this with Mr. Harper),
we need a 'team canada approach
I support you all in your efforts to bring some sanity to Parliament Hill. However – I am disappointed in
the tenor of an email I have just received from the office of one of
your coalition partners.
"Stephen Harper cares more about saving his job than yours"
I
really think Canadians would respect all of you more if you all took a
step back from partisanship at this point and focused more on the
present needs of the country.
Right now, the most important thing you could do is address the problem of the economy.
While
it's clear that Mr. Harper had no economic plan and it's also true that
he played petty and divisive politics with his "fiscal update", there
comes a time to put partisanship on the back burner. Doing that does
not mean accepting or practising the "politics of fear", which Mr. Harper has recklessly spread nationwide.
Au contraire, it means showing – by your own behaviour as parties and as a
coalition – that the politics of fear and division is the modus operandi of only
one player, in what many Canadians are beginning think of as a big game.
The
fact is that the Governor General permitted the prorogation of
parliament, to give Mr. Harper and the coalition a chance to put together some sort of plan
to confront the biggest issue facing Canadians today. Get on with it.
The New
Democrats, the Liberals and the Bloc ought now to be offering the Prime
Minister their best advice and ideas for facing the economic crisis,
which involves jobs, stability and trade. All of you ought be offering
that advice in a positive and generous way. And I'll tell you why.
If
Canadians could see all of you now – including Mr. Harper – pulling
together on behalf of the whole nation, it would help Canadians feel
better about the political process. If the sniping that is so prominent
in some coalition email continues, Canadians will only become more bitterly
divided and more deeply discouraged.
I'm
not saying that you have to get all cuddly with him; I'm saying that
you need to SOUND as well as BE constructive. Don't sink to that lower
level of carping and nasty, unhelpful rhetoric.
Look where that got the Bush-Cheney cabal.
You all need to
take a step back now and work in the best interests of the whole
country, even if that means helping Stephen Harper lead. This is after
all – about Canada.
Of course if he does not change his behaviour,
he will reap the consequences. But for now at least, let him eat his
humble pie in peace and you other party leaders do your level best to
calm the anger of ALL Canadians and work harder to produce some
healing-style messages.
Because Mr. Harper has acted badly, doesn't mean you all have to do the same.
Canadians will just be more unhappy about the overall political process, if the nastiness continues.
By
all means, keep the coalition alive. You can even appoint or elect a
coalition committee to work with Harper. The fact is – the more
positive an image you can put forward, the greater the chances you will
have of enhancing your own credibility and gaining broader public
confidence and support.
This is not a nit-picking kind of letter. It's sincere and from the heart.
My impression from speaking with a great many other people of various political stripes is that it's good advice.
________________________________________________________________________
We're watching you Steve.
jim
________________________________________________________
***The federal government can kickstart a big chunk of the economy by lending money at low interest rates to all qualified new homebuyers.They can also buy up all high-interest home mortgages – say those with interest ratges of more than 7% and refinance those existing home mortgages. The feds would make a lot of people happy and stimulate construction. Look here or a blueprint on how to go about doing that.
http://www.reedwrites.ca
jim
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates popped into Ottawa today (Friday) for a quick meeting with his underlings in NATO.
He's looking for 17 billion dollars or so in additional financing to help bring the Afghan armed forces up to their stated goal of 134,000 soldiers.
In other words, Afghanistan strategy is in tatters.
The meeting, which takes place at Cornwallis in the Canadian province of Ontario, will accomplish what these NATO meetings have accomplished over the years, which is not much. (The difference this time is that at long last civilian politicians have seized the "initiative" from their military commanders).
Still it's a chance for NATO functionaries to enjoy a good meal or two, drink some Canadian beer and exchange pleasantries while our soldiers continue to face death in the Afghan wilds.
The one positive development one can hope for out of the meeting is a move toward a more political approach to the Afghan conundrum.
We're not holding our breath.
