Peacekeeping: The curse of Lester Pearson

An Ottawa Citizen editorial decries the after-effects of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Lester B. Pearson's legacy remains one of the great Canadian contributions of the 20th century, in particular his Nobel Peace Prize-winning idea of an "emergency" international force to stand between hostile nations.

The Nobel committee said that in inventing peacekeeping, Pearson had "saved the world."

Heady, seductive praise for Canada -- and dangerous too, because it created a national self-image of Canada-the-Peacekeeper that is simply wrong. Pearson's "peacekeeping" was situational. It suited Suez in 1956, and some other conflicts over the years, but it should not have become our principal foreign and defence policy posture...

It's sometimes said that members of our unelected Senate are not the most industrious group of people in Ottawa, but Mr. Kenny's work [as Chair of the Committee on National Security and Defence] has been exemplary and thorough. His hard-hitting reports don't just expose deficiencies in our defence and security apparatus, but they bravely detail how public ignorance and political expediency have left this nation dangerously vulnerable...

Though a Liberal, Mr. Kenny endorses the government's support of Israel in its effort to dismantle Hezbollah, and he is unimpressed by interim Liberal leader Bill Graham's now-infamous call for a more "nuanced" position on militant Islam. Mr. Graham is wearing blinkers, and sometimes when your vision is limited you don't see the bomb coming...