Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Moral clarity

Shorter Joe Jacobs: We should freeload, just because we can.

5 Comments:

Blogger Dave in Pa. said...

So the Evil BusHitler could invade and conquer Canada if he wanted. BUT the not-quite-so Evil BusHitler would save Canada's *** if it were attacked by anyone. That being the case, let America pick up ALL the defense tab, in treasure and in blood.

This "philosophy" is cowardice wrapped up in hate and moral sloth!

10:18 a.m., April 17, 2007  
Blogger Fotis said...

Excluding comment on the last posting....

I think there a couple of points worth salvaging out of the letter referenced....

It should be very clear that the current government is significantly more confrontational and more willing with respect to it's attitudes on conflict. I'm not personally sure if it all for the best. These attitudes are highly in line with some of the more extreme positions of the United States and I feel it does Canada a disservice to hold these opinions. We are more than sheep (aka the coalition of the willing) and we should encourage our politicians to ensure that the attitudes we espouse are proud Canadian ones. Canada, unfortunately, is complaining to no-avail about other NATO countries who are in effect freeloading in Afghanistan. We may have had more leverage here if the current government did not hitch this issue to its partisan political position.

Also, The Canadian Military is in lack of a clear mandate. A number of years ago there was a push to more highly mobile reactionary force now there seems to be a sudden shift to "beefing up" to be able to go toe to toe. The government needs to define a clear persistent mandate for the military and have the military equip around it. We then need the political presence of mind to stick to missions we are staffed and trained for. Given what I have seen I have no confidence that the mandate for the military will not change yet again in the next 2-3 years.

11:02 a.m., April 17, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So aren't we supposed to support the UN, support multilateral missions ??

Afghanistan is a UN security council mandated mission. If the lefty moonbats and others of the anti -American ilk want to wallow in their self-loathing and hatred of all things USA, so be it.

They can't handle truth, so they replace it with simplistic delusions about the evil empire screwing Canada.

11:26 a.m., April 17, 2007  
Blogger Cameron Campbell said...

fred deriding people for being simplistic has utterly made my day.

Thank you fred.

11:36 a.m., April 17, 2007  
Blogger Fotis said...

First of all... I am not a moonbat; I am not a lefty; and I endeavor to be thoughtful and articulate. I don't have delusions. For some reason you would have me believe that your simplistic delusions about the altruistic, peace making intentions of the United States are more accurate than my opposing views.

Second I agree that we should be fully contributing members to the United Nations and efforts. That being said though, countries like the US (among others) use the UN selectively to promote their individual agendas while simply ignoring others which are not to their liking. For instance there have been a number Middle East related resolutions which have floundered because of US ambivalence (or pro-Israeli posturing).

That being said the UN (and all it’s failings) is likely the best system we currently have available to us for multilateral negotiations. With respect to the UN resolution for Afghanistan, I have always had a concern that NATO/ISAF is now running operations in Afghanistan. I think they are hamstrung by the internal bickering by the member nations in Afghanistan. It's turned into a patchwork of solutions and a mission which lacks end to end clarity. I’m not saying there is not value to the mission I am saying that there does not seem to be a coherent plan (currently) just a series of tactical decisions which may or may not be moving us towards the desired end

An interesting comment that I thought hit the mark http://politicsblog.ctv.ca/blog/_archives/2007/4/13/2877841.html

12:28 p.m., April 17, 2007  

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