A rchive Date
[ 11-10-2001 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/worthington.html
PM's out of touch
By PETER WORTHINGTON - Toronto Sun
October 11, 2001
It'll be some time before any real news emerges about the war that started Sunday against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.
But things are changing - have changed - like the emergence of President George Bush and Britain's PM, Tony Blair, as effective war leaders, and the diminishing of Jean Chretien, who just doesn't get it and fails to inspire.
As for Chretien's apparent surge in popularity - we always support a leader when war starts. But Chretien's jump in support is less than any other democratic leader. (Odd, considering there's no political alternative in Canada.)
Already issues loom that will test the alliance far more than going after the Taliban's mad Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden.
When the Taliban are history, and bin Laden neutralized, Iraq will be far more difficult. If it's true - and the evidence seems incontrovertible (60 Minutes and from intelligence reports) - that Iraq has underground factories making biological and chemical weapons with the potential and intent of annihilating huge portions of a civilian population, what is to be done?
It should rest grievously on the consciences of former president George Bush and General Colin Powell (now the U.S. Secretary of State) that they didn't march to Baghdad in the Gulf war and eliminate Saddam Hussein.
A case can be made that if Iraq (or any rogue regime) is making biological weapons, it should be eliminated surely and quickly - even if that entails a limited nuclear strike with inevitable civilian casualties. The consequences of inaction are too devastating to ignore.
Bush and all the allied leaders repeatedly remind us that this war against terrorism - WWIII - is different from past wars. That, too, is a redundancy. Every war of the last century has been "different" from the previous one: WWI different from the Boer War; WWII from WWI; Korea from WWII; Somalia from the Gulf war; Kosovo's air-only war different from any other.
This war is more unconventional, of the sort backward countries have waged for 30 years, but this time with the advantage of modern technology.
Judging from people I know, Canadians identify with Americans since Sept. 11 as never before - far more enthusiastically than Chretien initially did, or those people the CBC digs up to give "expert" opinion.
Of Chretien's cabinet, Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley is most impressive. His predecessor, Lloyd Axworthy, is awesomely out of touch; praise be that he's been put out to pasture. A monumentally foolish man of the mindless left.
Those who fear Muslims everywhere may rise to the defence of terrorism are out to lunch (I hope). There is no holy war, or jihad, to fight. No one is threatening Islam - except the Taliban and bin Laden. As for Canada, maybe we should expect immigrants to adapt to our culture, not us to theirs.
Free choice, yes, but we should never have paid immigrants to maintain the cultures they fled from.
A positive aspect since Sept. 11 is how sensible the people around Bush are - from Mayor Rudy Giuliani to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, V-P Dick Cheney, Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General John Ashcroft.
A positive outcome of all this may be that Chretien (or his successor) will see the reality that our Armed Forces have been reduced to near impotence, useful only as tokens with no clout or impact.
That will likely change in the future. About time.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA]
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