Today's political commentary:
In case you've spent today in the back of a deep cave in, I don't know, Afghanistan, or can lay claim to being Harry Potter and were locked in the cupboard under the stairs, or have no net or TV access, or are, for the sake of argument, a CNN-worshipping American (because we all know CNN rarely covers topics that make the U.S. look bad), then you've probably heard that our Prime Minister top communications director called Bush a "moron" (everyone's very careful to use the inverted commas, like holding a dirty hanky at arm's length- or is it tongue in cheek?) It was a private conversation, granted, but there are just some places where you don't mention your private opinions, and a NATO conference with a room full of reporters is one of them. The phrase was actually in reference to Bush making war on Iraq for the oil, and how dumb all his chicanery about terrorism and mass destruction weapons was. (We all know my private opinion: anything Bush has said about Saddam could be equally applied to Bush- a power-hungry madman with a vast arsenal of weapons, including nukes, and a trigger-happy finger, not to mention a Cause, i.e. finish what Daddy started.) The U.S. Defence Minister retaliated by saying that Canada's military spending is the 3rd lowest in NATO, next to Luxembourg and Iceland, "which doesn't even have a military," and how we should be ashamed of ourselved.
First, I take issue with people who try to tell us how to spend our money. Just because, oh, I don't know, the best health-care system in the world is more important to Canadians than war is to Americans doesn't mean we should want to be like Uncle Sam. Or Uncle George, rather. (As that documentary "Uncle Saddam" points out, few Iraquis have a quarrel with the American people, and believe it's only a war between governments. I liked that distinction. I think Canadians just don't like the U.S. government.) Secondly, it's pretty easy to figure out WHY we don't have a big military budget- we're not in the habit of declaring war at the drop of a hat. Since Bush has been in office (2 years now?), he's attacked Afghanistan and is already making plans about North Korea and Iraq, not to mention the rest of the Axis of Evil. What a way to crush some toes! I don't believe Canada has ever actually declared war on a country, we've only ever contributed troops. Does that indicate a lack of backbone? I don't think so. I think it's representative of the mentality of the Canadian people -- we're not big on patriotic flag-waving, and we're not big on war. We don't want to conquer other places, we have oil, wood, grain, fish, and uranium. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say we're a pacifistic people, but we're not out for blood, and we wouldn't let our politicians be, either. So our military spending isn't great because our military isn't great, and our military isn't great because we don't want to use it every couple of years. We're Peacekeepers, not Stormtroopers. And I back up Chretien and his spokeswoman 100%. She had the guts to say what we're all thinking.
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