I never fail to be amazed at the audacity of politicians in power who accuse members of the opposition who question their wisdom of playing politics. Of course they’re playing politics. They’re politicians exercising their duty. What would governments have the opposition do? Play baseball?
It’s a transparent accusation that unfortunately is not transparent enoughto the innocents who want to believe that their government is made up of honourable men and women who do and say honourable things. When these “honourable” genders accuse others of “playing politics” they would have us believe that they are above all that. This smokescreen has its intended effect all too often.
But as Old Abe said, “You can fool some of the people, all of the time. You can fool all of the people, some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
There is at least anecdotal evidence that all of the people are fed up with being fooled. Their reaction so far is relegated to simply sneering that all politicians are liars. It’s a passive position that may be revealed in polls to come — if the voting public can sense that someone is telling the truth.
And telling the truth is an urgent goal if we are to support our troops.
Take for example the silly, stupid, (if not dishonest), statement last week by NATO’s secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer when touring Quebec to boost flagging French Canadian support for Canada’s war policy in Afghanistan. Incredibly, he compared Canada’s cause in Afghanistan with that of Canada’s commitment in World War 11 against Nazi Germany.
Now the Taliban is all kinds of bad things but for Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to compare them with the Nazis is simply bizarre. By no stretch of the imagination can the Taliban be rationally compared with the Nazis except, perhaps, to say that there can be no comparison.
Canada , like its NATO allies, was seduced into joining the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the shock of 9/11/01. Canadian troops had boots on the ground by November and were there in force by January 2002. Part of the Canadian forces' mission was to assist U.S. troops in Kandahar by keeping at bay al Qaeda fighters and tracking down Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden.
Lost in the Niagara of words that followed was the fact that the Russian secret service made public the telling of Washington exactly where bin Laden could be found. Washington responded in publicthat it was not yetready to take bin Laden.
Of course not, Bush and his gang of liars, didn’t want bin Laden, that would cramp their bid to brainwash the American public into believing that the real enemy was Saddam Hussein. Even though 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. I’ll never forget George W.’s televised Ohio speech in October 2002. I remember saying to present company, “Brilliantly delivered. The only trouble is, he’s lying.” The real goal of this club of liars was possession of Iraq oil.
So because of a natural, healthy, heart-felt move to help our distressed neighbour, we have at least 60 Canadian military dead in Afghanistan (the wounded are seldom counted). While at the same time Afghanistan, under NATO leadership, has taken its place as producer of 90 per cent of the world’s opium supply. Is this what our troops are dying for?
Are we to stand for the insult to our intelligence that they are dying, (not to mention the wounded), because they are fighting a Nazi equivalent? It’s time that we insist that our governmentstop playing politics and start telling us the truth — because it is the truth that will protect our troops just as it is the truth that keeps us free.
Looking forward
Carl Dow
Editor and Publisher
True North Perspective
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