A rchive Date
[ 22-02-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/coren.html
Slowing the rush to war
By MICHAEL COREN -- Sun Media
February 22, 2003
I have to admit I was wrong.
On my television show the evening before the huge peace marches across the world last weekend I said they would achieve very little. I misjudged the mood of the people of Europe, North America and Australia. Goodness me, even the Iraqi government didn't believe the figures when they were told that tens of millions of people had protested against war.
Let me say immediately that I give no significance to the usual suspects. The types who turn up to every protest, who boast of having marched against everything and everyone. The hard left, the soft minds. They annoy rather than impress. No, it was the number of people who wouldn't otherwise have come together to speak out against anything that so startled me. If you like, ordinary people. Families, community groups, church organizations, charities, seniors.
The weather in Canada was dreadful on the day, but still the numbers were overwhelming. In Britain, the strongest ally of the United States, about a million people marched through London. Now London is my home town, and I've seen some pretty large demonstrations. But a million!
It was the largest political gathering in British history.
Such a phenomenon simply cannot be ignored. Indeed, it hasn't been by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. His leadership is in danger, and while there is no political party that could defeat him in an election, he could well split the Labour Party.
CALLING FOR PATIENCE
No leader can govern a country when so many people are so opposed to a major policy. In the United States, there were similar numbers, if spread around the nation. Something else is worth noting. Only in the U.S. are many church leaders in support of (or not actively opposed to) war with Iraq at this stage. In the rest of the world, the denominations are united in calling for patience.
The Pope is hardly renowned as a left-wing activist, but he has urged restraint. So have leaders of other faiths, and leaders of various political parties. Yes, we can discount the French, as they have an unethical foreign policy and have long sold arms to dictatorships. But we can't disregard everyone.
There is something more important than all of this. Anti-Americanism. Those of us who love and respect the United States know it has been, often is and should always be a force for good in the world. It left half-a-million men on the battlefields of Europe, Asia and North Africa during World War II. It gives more generously to the needy than any other country.
It was GK Chesterton who stated it most clearly and cleverly. "Any man who says 'my country right or wrong' is no patriot. It is like saying 'my mother, drunk or sober.'" In other words, blanket approval of the actions of a loved one is not love at all but either blind adoration or simply apathy.
It has become fashionable on the journalistic right to dismiss the rising anti-Americanism as a knee-jerk reaction from jealous rivals - a proposition so simplistic it almost hurts. People have always resented the successful and the powerful, but this goes further.
We all become tired of Canadian snobs making fun of our neighbours, but now formerly apolitical men and women are questioning the very morality of the United States. A highly intelligent and experienced leader of a clever and thorough United Nations inspection team told the world that while war cannot be ruled out, we should wait until more work has been done.
This was no trusting fool, but someone who knows the evil ways of the Iraqi leadership. But then many in the world now believe that years of sanctions are also evil, and have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi people.
I believe the Americans had a right to go into Afghanistan, as did much of the world. But George Bush has conducted this campaign against Iraq as if it were a personal war game between him and Saddam Hussein. He has backed himself into a corner. If he fights, he will be despised by a massive number of people who formerly had no grudge against the U.S. If he doesn't, a mobster in Iraq will become a Middle Eastern hero.
Michael Coren is a Toronto-based writer and broadcaster. He can be emailed at info@michaelcoren.com and his web site is michaelcoren.com Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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