A rchive Date
[ 28-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/goodden.html
Tracing column's trail to Crossfire
By Herman Goodden - London Free Press
November 28, 2002
Well, that was pretty far out. I knew my Sept. 30 Free Press column had found wide readership on the Web because I received appreciative e-mails for weeks after it ran, many from the U.S. But I never dreamt nearly two months later my words would be cited - with on-screen accreditation to myself and this paper - on the CNN Crossfire broadcast Monday night with an estimated global audience of six million.
In the column, I commented on the slow motion retirement of Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his loutish remarks to a CBC interviewer on the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
In that interview, Chretien quite wackily opined that the arrogance and greed of western societies had somehow driven Islamic terrorists into plowing hijacked passenger jetliners into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.
It was hardly the first time I'd found Chretien's logic a little elusive. Terrorists want to enjoy the prosperity and luxury we know in the West, so they immolate themselves and thousands of innocent victims in ruthless suicide missions? Come again?
If Chretien would just read al-Qaida's own PR materials and listen to Osama bin Laden's latest tapes recorded on the lam in dank caves scattered beyond the pulverized Afghanistan outback, he'd find it repeatedly stated the terrorists don't hate us because they covet our sport utility vehicles or secretly wish they too could chow down at the all-you-can-eat buffet at the nearest Waddling Cowboy steakhouse.
No, they hate us and want to exterminate us because we are - everybody repeat after Osama - "the great Satan."
The 49th parallel disappears in the glare of their fanatical light and Americans and Canadians alike are equally regarded as godless infidels deserving of death because we are innately vile. No sharing of moolah or power would ever appease such blind hatred.
We might cravenly hope our higher levels of taxation and our devalued dollar might make us less inviting targets than the Americans, but such piffling distinctions are lost on al-Qaida. There has even been speculation in some quarters about Canadian targets for bombing, from nuclear power plants to military bases to the Peace Tower and the Calgary Stampede.
Some of the sites make a certain grim sense, I suppose, but the Calgary Stampede? Has bin Laden got a problem with bronco-busting or hog-tying?
Perhaps it's just the human beings of the West he detests. Underneath that fierce exterior, could he be a tender-hearted member of an animal rights organization? Or is it those chuck wagon races that offend his sensibilities?
I thought the prime minister had been incredibly insensitive in his victim-blaming, 9/11 remarks and I said so. While that column had enjoyed good play through October, I'd assumed for at least the last month its circulation had ceased.
When the communications director for our flannel-tongued prime minister set off a furor by calling President George W. Bush a "moron," contentious relations between Chretien and the U.S. were back in the news and somehow my column came to the attention of Crossfire host Bob Novak.
I certainly had no warning I'd be quoted and knew nothing about it until I got home late Monday night to find my answering machine lit up like a Christmas tree and my incoming e-mail file filled. I don't usually have access to CNN, but briefly checked out Crossfire a couple times and didn't care for the usual format of pitting a couple lefties against a couple right-wingers and letting them shout each other down.
They don't rerun Crossfire, so I still haven't seen the show and am balking at sending off $50 US for a video from CNN. Seeing as how we both got mentioned, perhaps The Free Press would like to go splits.
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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