A rchive Date
[ 06-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/leishman.html
A resolve gone missing
By RORY LEISHMAN - London Free Press
April 6, 2003
Prime Minister Jean Chretien has committed many gaffes, none more absurd and shameful than his directive that Canadian soldiers serving with our British, American and Australian allies in Iraq must only fire in self-defence.
Chretien disclosed this outrageous policy in the Commons on March 27, when he was asked about the half a dozen Canadian officers who are reportedly serving with the British First Armoured Division in southern Iraq. In response, Chretien insisted, "we are not at war with Iraq." He assured that any Canadian soldiers who might be on assignment with American, Australian and British armies on Iraqi soil will have "received instructions from their army to the effect that they could use their weapons only in self-defence."
Suppose a Canadian officer on duty in Iraq with a logistical unit of the British army were to spot an Iraqi sniper. Thanks to Chretien's order, that officer could not safeguard the lives of his British colleagues by firing at the sniper unless he had reason to believe his own life is at risk.
This policy is appalling. It's inconceivable that a British, American or Australian soldier would fail to fire on an Iraqi sniper who was poised to kill a Canadian comrade.
What has gone wrong with Canada? That Chretien and most of his fellow French-Canadians oppose the current war with Iraq is not too surprising. After all, most French-Canadians were also unwilling to go to war to defend western civilization from Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and militant Japan.
Likewise, given the authoritarian nature of Islamic civilization, it's not surprising that a consensus has developed among Canadian Muslims in opposition to the war of liberation in Iraq. With the striking exception of UWO Prof. Salim Mansur, virtually no Canadian Muslim has had the insight and courage to speak out in support of the determination of the U.S.-led coalition to overthrow Saddam Hussein's barbaric dictatorship and free the Iraqi people.
What about the majority of Canadians? Has our culture become so corrupted and degraded by postmodernist multiculturalism that most of us are no longer willing to go to war to safeguard the freedoms that our ancestors fought so heroically to defend during the First and Second World Wars?
Chretien says his government would have joined the coalition of the willing to free Iraq if the United Nations Security Council had approved the conflict. That's absurd.
Would Britain, France and Canada have decided not to declare war on Nazi Germany after Hitler crushed Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland in 1939 if a majority of dictatorial states within the League of Nations had opposed the conflict? The idea is preposterous. And so is Chretien's disposition to cater to the unwillingness of the United Nations to enforce its long-standing disarmament resolutions on Iraq.
United States President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and the leaders of the 43 other countries that have joined the coalition of the willing are right: After 12 years of failure by the United Nations to disarm Iraq, it's evident that nothing short of armed intervention can ensure that Saddam never gets a chance to terrorize his Muslim neighbours and the Western democracies with nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, in bright contrast to Chretien and his benighted Liberal colleagues, Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day have a clear understanding of the current crisis. In an article in the Wall Street Journal on March 28, they decried the unprecedented refusal of the Canadian government to stand by our "British and American allies in their time of need."
"Make no mistake," said Harper and Day, "as our allies work to end the reign of Saddam and the brutality and aggression that are the foundations of his regime, Canada's largest opposition party - the Canadian Alliance - will not be neutral. In our hearts and minds, we will be with our allies and friends. And Canadians will be overwhelmingly with us."
Let us hope that this prediction is borne out - that the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens will soon rise up, speak out and insist that Canada must rejoin our closest allies and friends - the United States and Britain - in the resolute defence of peace, freedom and democracy.
Write Rory at The London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1 or fax 519-667-4528 or E-mail. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com.
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