Bud Talkinghorn: Romeo Dallaire--Canada's Conscience, Liberal Wall of Obfuscation, Iraqi Insurgents

Romeo Dallaire--Canada's conscience

The general was in conversation with Peter Mansbridge on Sunday's One on One. Dallaire is disgusted with the multilateral approach to the Darfur genocide. He criticized Canada and the UN's endless dithering, while the slaughter goes on apace. He sees the Liberals' approach as risk aversion. As for the UN, he sees the thug states. especially the Muslim dictatorships, ruling the agenda. They are committing the same moral blindness that has characterized their inaction in Algeria and Indonesia. Dallaire views this inaction as of the same mentality that allowed the slaughter to go on in Rwanda. It is the classic UN "let's talk about this human disaster over cocktails and canapes at the African gala ball tonight." In Canada's case, it is sheer avoidance of admitting that the military has been so neutered that they couldn't respond if they wanted to. As for the government's communiques, they remind me of WH Auden's line from Night Falls on China: "And now I hear the hum of printing presses; turning forests into lies." Now we have Martin and his vast entourage touring Thailand and Sri Lanka for a good photo op, before moving on to China to do some (I believe, personal) business--the real reason for the trip of course. Must make sure that the keel work being done on one of his steamships in Shanghai is coming along well. Meanwhile General Dallaire will remain the Canadian voice of humanity.

© Bud Talkinghorn




The Great Liberal Wall of obfuscation gets another segment added

It is not enough the Martin and his Liberal ministers can dodge important questions from the opposition by claiming they can't comment. Why can't they? Well, it is "before the courts". This of course doesn't stop Volpe, the new Immigration Minister, from prejudging Harjit Singh's accusation about Sgro's wrong doing. The second way is to claim that it is being looked at in "parliamentary committee", so wait for its conclusion. If the evidence points to Liberal chicanery that might take a long, long time. Then there is that wondrous "Privacy Act" which precludes naming any villains. Now Martin, who has been--or still is--in Sri Lanka, cannot name the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group, because the UN doesn't think they are terrorists. Here we have an organization of those who cannot bring themselves to strongly condemn terrorist-supporting rogue states. This is the moral beacon that guides Paul Martin. But of course Martin is going to forge a new, clean ethical government. He is going to cut the democratic deficit. And pigs can fly.

© Bud Talkinghorn




Let's take a closer look at the Iraqi 'insurgents'

Granted, you have the boiler-plated former Baathists, who are nostalgic for the good old days. It is really hard to retire from your omnipotent position as judge, torturer and executioner. Playing dominos all day just doesn't cut it. Also the homegrown jihadis, the Ansar al-Islam, have been cut off from Saddam's protected species program. Now added to these losers--Rumfeld's "dead enders"--are the religiously inflamed youth of Iraq's neighbouring countries. The glue that binds these disparate groups together is their shared hatred for any form of democracy. The ex-Baathists simply want to go back to suppressing the Shi'ites and the Kurds. Their religious roots are quite shallow and in the old days would have been happy to consign their religious fanatic allies to the plastic shredders. For their part, the Ansar and foreign jihadis probably entertain thoughts of stoning these Baathist apostates to death, once in power. A very shaky alliance indeed.

That alliance will really come under increased stress when the new government is composed mainly of their old nemesis, the Shi'ites. As governors, they can start to purge the Iraq army of the Sunni collorationists and the shirkers. The next battle of Falluja will make the death toll of the last one seem miniscule. The Shi'ites have not forgotten the massacres of their kin at the hands of the Sunni Baathists. Nor will they forget Osama's call to his Sunni brethern to crush the Shi'ites; even if it foments civil war. How much control the American military will have over these unfolding events is debatable. After all, it will now be a democracy; albeit one with theocratic overtones.

© Bud Talkinghorn