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EDITORIAL

The loneliest outpost

April 14, 2003

It must be lonely where Commodore Roger Girouard is. Girouard is the little heard about Canadian in charge of the multinational naval task force in the Persian Gulf.

Girourd’s superiors back in Ottawa expect him to take a confrontational stand against U.S. forces, and it has even been reported that they would not condone his turning over Saddam Hussein to the Americans, should their man in the Persian Gulf happen to find him.

Guess Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Herb Dhaliwal, Carolyn Parrish, Colleen Beaumier, et al have never seen the remarkable American marines in action.

While praise is heaped upon members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the war in Iraq, by both their own governments and people, Commodore Roger Girouard appears to be very much left on his own.

The Commodore represents the government of a country that happens to have declared its neutrality in the Iraq war.

As street-dancing Iraquis welcomed the fall of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad last week, reporters caught up with the Canadian PM.

Although he admitted it may be time to patch up relations between the United States and allies who didn’t sign up for war, Chrétien said he was in no hurry to place a call to George W. Bush. Yet Chrétien made it clear that he maintains high hopes that Bush will make a scheduled May 5 state visit to Ottawa.

Chrétien also conceded that some bridge building is in order between the U.S. and countries such as Canada, France, and Germany, all of which of course did not participate in the war.

"There was a good chemistry among the countries before these past few months and I hope we can get that back," he told reporters at a press conference.

With no apologies to date in the aftermath of anti-American slurs by members of both his staff and government, Chrétien hopes to return to the unity of purpose he said existed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, that was disrupted by disagreement over the war.

"I would have liked to agree with the U.S., I…was disappointed that we were unable to agree," he said. "But these things happen. We’re a free country and we make our own decisions.

"We did not (go) to war because we said a year ago that we were to go only with the approval of the (United Nations) Security Council. Now it’s over, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time to debate that."

So where does that leave Commodore Roger Girouard and the troops he leads?

Retired LCDR, RCN John Buckingham, of Nanaimo, B.C. put it best.

"Can you imagine the loss of credibility he will suffer as the Commander of a multinational force? Can you imagine the impact on the morale of the men and women under his command?

"His position has been rendered untenable by the contradictions enunciated as policy by a dysfunctional government."

Were it not for the problem that communiqués from the war front have a way of falling on deaf ears where the Canadian government is concerned, Commodore Roger Girouard should dispatch an SOS from what has to be the loneliest outpost. Earth to Jean Chrétien, your neutrality notwithstanding, there’s a war on out here.