A rchive Date
[ 21-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/goodden.html
Cheering MPs miss direction of history
By Herman Goodden - London Free Press
March 21, 2003
On a packed rush hour bus Wednesday night about 6, I met an old friend who'd been to a talk Pierre Berton gave at Western and bought a couple of autographed books she was going to send to relatives in England - Vimy (one of Berton's classics) and Marching As to War (his latest). After a couple minutes she urgently set aside our literary chatter to inquire if I'd been near a radio in the last few hours. "Do you know if we're at war yet?" she asked.
I'm not sure which side of the prewar debate this woman occupied - if either. I can't imagine she would have been one of those pea-brains demonizing President George W. Bush as a bloodthirsty moron, but neither can I see her agitating to boot Hans Blix and his myopic UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq to bring on the hostilities forthwith. I suspect that like the vast majority of people, she was torn at the prospect of war and probably still feels a co-mingling of dread and hope now that it's here. But significantly, as suggested by her choice of words (are "we" at war, not "they") - and unlike Canada's perpetually waffling prime minister - she instinctively recognized which side of this conflict Canada should be on.
About three hours after that meeting on the bus, the American-led "coalition of the willing" launched a far more restrained and surgical first assault than all the recent talk about "shock and awe" had led the world to expect. Baghdad presently responded by ineffectively lobbing some of their Scud missiles (which Saddam Hussein had assured us he didn't have and Hans Blix couldn't locate) into the northern Kuwait desert.
Did they fear this popularly expedient non-action might come back to bite them some day?
Everyone recognizes there isn't much the recklessly depleted Canadian armed forces could have added militarily to this effort anyway. But in the "war on terrorism" the coalition is waging to protect the western democracies from atrocities like 9/11, moral and philosophical support counts for something, too. At a time when terrorist cells are being secretly funded and protected by some countries, and not very vigorously monitored by others (an area where Canada has repeatedly goofed up), the United States badly needs to know who's really with them.
On Monday afternoon as Bush prepared to end the wearisome UN dithering and deliver his final 48- hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, Prime Minister Jean Chretien finally had to come down off the world's wobbliest fence, which he's been perched on for the last 18 months. The UN inspection process was working just fine, Chretien told the House of Commons, and the impending war was "not justified . . . . If military action proceeds without a new resolution of the UN Security Council, Canada will not participate."
This brought the Liberal caucus and backbenchers to their feet in a rousing, even jubilant, ovation. Among the applauding horde, I couldn't see the pride of Mississauga, MP Carolyn Parrish, who last month notoriously opined, "Damn Americans, I hate those bastards," and received no reprimand from the above. No doubt Chretien's brave decision would have filled her cup of anti-American bile to overflowing.
But in replay footage shown on TVO's Studio 2 that night, Chretien and Deputy Prime Minister John Manley could be seen repeatedly gesturing to their frenzied colleagues to cool it.
Did they fear this popularly expedient non-action might come back to bite them some day? Some pundits suggested possible fallout in trade with the U.S. and more stringent border inspections.
I wondered if Chretien and Manley were looking beyond the polls for a second and thinking of the history books yet to be written. How will it look in the long term that the Liberals so rapturously received the news Canada would duck out of this war and leave our longtime allies to wage it on our behalf? It's grim to imagine what sort of title Pierre Berton might dream up for that book.
Herman Goodden is a London freelance writer. His column appears in Monday's and Thursday's Opinion pages. It no longer appears in Sunday's A&E section. He can be e-mailed at herman.goodden@sympatico.ca Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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