By Dick Field
Friday, September 29, 2006
"There are millions of Canadians that deplore our emphasis on military action in Southern afghanistan," according to 'Smilin' Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
Note the use of the phrase "Canadians deplore this or Canadians think that." It's an old ploy used by politicians to put down anyone who disagrees with his or her particular point of view. It implies that if you don't agree with me, then you just aren't a Canadian; perhaps some kind of alien?
Politicians in the United States use the phrase all the time but often less subtlety. They often come right out and say, "That's un- american!" The more polite stick to Jack's ploy, "americans think this or that."
Then again, like a trained parrot, Jack squawks all the platitudes of the american "peace at any cost" appeasers. We have no business in afghanistan (Iraq) unless it is for reconstruction, or some type of peaceful endeavour, says Jack and his Party. Our mission has changed.
Furthermore, we have no "Exit Strategy."
"What is our Exit Strategy?" "How long does this government intend to remain there?" and all along we thought Jack hated american behaviour.
It can't be true, because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Jack's right in there, "exit strategy, squawk, exit strategy, squawk, exit strategy!"
all this shouldn't surprise anyone though should it? The NDP has never been able to see beyond, 'what's in it for us Canadians.' So-called social justice (whatever that is?) is all happy Jack and his Party like to talk about.
It appears they want to see that all our collective tax contributions go to daycare, healthcare, schools, the poor, minority groups, overseas relief, subsidized housing and most of all to their overpaid, unionized, civil service buddies. Defense and security upon which all the rest depends, they want to starve, deplete and render useless.
an Exit Strategy for the NDP is a longtime policy platform. What Jack and his Party really want is to just plain "Exit." Their plan is first, last and always to run away from any commitment to the fight for freedom.
The NDP demanded that Canada "Exit" from the support of NaTO during the cold war. Perhaps the single most powerful international shield against war, the NDP wanted to abandon and cut the size and effectiveness of our military. Why do we even need a military they ask? We have no enemies they said.
When President Ronald Reagan decided he had to rearm the US military because the USSR was massively increasing their military spending, the NDP squawked that Reagan was a warmonger. We must not emulate the United States, they shouted.
President Reagan was correct; the NDP wrong, because negotiating from strength is always the key to a successful agreement. In the process, Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Reagan became great friends and the Berlin Wall came down. Winning is the only real "Exit Strategy." Of course as expected, once the NDP saw the cold war was over, they immediately stepped up to the plate for their share of the illusory "Peace Dividend."
Happy Jack and the NDP's manifesto is quite simply, "What can my country do for us" and never, what can we do for our country. The priority of the fight for the underlying values of our free country and indeed a free world means nothing to these squawking parrots.
We are in a Great War today, a step to a nuclear WW3 unless we are able to stop it. almost world-wide in scope, this war is clearly between those countries that aspire to or wish to maintain societies of peaceful civilized and decent people living by laws of their own making and those countries that deliberately breed millions of backward young people who think that they can achieve their confused objectives through wanton murderous "no-holds-barred" mass killings.
Unfortunately, most of these young mass murderers are motivated by a pitiless religious fervor dating back prior to the middle ages and exhorted into action by a multitude of old men who pretend to receive their authority from God. They are sadly mostly brain-washed Jihadist Muslim young men incited by aging men calling themselves mullahs, imams or ayatollahs.
For those who may take offense to these words, it has to be remembered that the Christian history of the Middle ages, from the Reformation to the early 17th century was replete with torture, executions, murder, religious wars, extremist mass murder and religious terror.
Those who perceive the West as your enemies have long ago been there and done that. Luckily, the lands of Christianity learned to govern themselves by leaving behind government by religious authorities and religious courts. The Muslim world has 400 years to catch up to the world of self-governing free peoples. Let us hope it can make the leap to modernity in time.
If we in the West are going to fight this war, there has to be a commitment to fight it on all fronts. It cannot be fought solely on the battlefield. But this phrase "Exit Strategy," associated with a time table is the height of idiocy. Imagine if Britain, before fighting the Nazis, had said, "We cannot declare war until we know our "exit strategy" and by the way, how long is our commitment?"
When one million Canadian volunteer service men and women signed up to fight the evils of Nazism and Fascism from 1939 through 1945, they signed up "for the duration." Not only that, but they signed up to fight anywhere in the world. They didn't ask for their "Exit" date or expect one.
This so-called "Exit Strategy" is a phrase developed for computer video games, not war. In the real world it is a recipe for defeat. This World War cannot be lost by the progressive forces of civilization or we will descend into a new dark age.
Canadians will make their decision known in the non-too-distant future, through the next Federal election.
Will we agree that afghanistan is part of the war on terror or not? Will we decide to cooperate with our allies or not?
However, the most profound of all questions we might ask ourselves are
(a Winston Churchill abstract):
Do we Canadians have the savvy to stand, fight and win when we can, or will we be forced to fight when it is too late and there is no hope of winning?
Let's hope the future will be guided by the common sense and spirit of freedom that our ancestors held, and most of us still hold, very, very close to our hearts.