Michael R. Barrick

As usual we are, despite all the flack for "doing nothing" quietly doing more than expected, more than we said we would, and doing it right. The headlines on all the papers today are about how "disappointed" the American government is with us, yet the American embassador to Canada, Paul Celucci, also had these words about our naval presence in the Persian Gulf which is still there because we are still in Afghanistan:

Ironically, because of the presence in the Persian Gulf, they will provide more support for this war in Iraq indirectly than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting us. It's kind of an odd situation.

So, to those that are "ashamed" of our "lack of involvement" - shut the fuck up. Our government did the ethically right thing by staying in line with our prinicples regarding the UN, international law, and peacekeeping. Never forget that Canada invented peacekeeping and ever since we first distinguished ourselves in the Boer War, Canadian soldiers have continued to earn and maintain the respect of friends and enemies alike. General Rommel, the German commander of the North African theatre in WWII, said that if he had Canadian soldiers with American equipment he could win the war. In the first gas attacks of WWI at Yprès, it was the Canadians alone that held the line while everyone else ran and died. Canada was in WWII two years ahead of America and it was the Canadians (including my father) who spearheaded the invasion of Italy in WWII and cleared the way for the Brits and Americans. It was Canadians (again including my father) that landed at Dieppe and prooved that the invasion of Normandy, while difficult, was not impossible. Our peacekeepers were in Korea and, despite the reputation garnered from American draft-dodging, our volunteer millitary was in Vietnam. And in the first Gulf War it was Canadian fighter jets that were sent in first, specifically to be shot at, so the Americans could come in with relative safety to take out the anti-aircraft guns.

Be proud of Canada. Be proud that we have the guts and moral fortitude to finish wars and ethics enough not to start them.

OK, we took all your planes on September 11th, we have troops in Afghanistan, we even lost some of our own people in the WTC and this is what we get for helping. Bad enough that your dumbass president forgot to mention us in his speech on September 19th, but now, after all our help we're just getting fucked over. We should cut off all the electricity we export. See how things change when L.A. and NYC go black...

"Our forest dependent communities and forest dependent families are under attack by a hostile foreign power," said De Jong, who was at the negotiation table when talks failed. "It made everyone in that room in Washington sick to their stomachs to watch that unfold."

He suggested that American negotiators may have misplaced Canadian compassion and generosity after the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York.

-- BC Forestry Minister Mike De Jong (CBC)

I am endlessly fond of pointing out that the residents of Paris rioted in the 17th century when the French government decided to formalize the street names and assign numbers to the buildings. This was considered to be altogether too much government interference in the daily lives of people. Now look at us here in our "free countries" of the First World. It's to the point where we can't even imaging how our addresses could be considered an invasion of privacy, so effectively our freedoms have been eroded.

Think about the things George Orwell predicted in 1948 - find one that hasn't come true:

The cameras are everywhere. That doesn't even need explaining. If I cross the border I am photographed. When I take money out of the bank I am photographed. When I buy a pop in the corner store I am photographed. All in the name of protecting me from crime. Big Brother is looking out for me.

The perpetual war. This doesn't even need explaining. America sells weapons to it's own enemies, for chirssake. So does Russia, France, England, and a host of others.

The Lottery. "Voluntary taxation for the mathematically inept". Robbing the poor and stupid to fill goverment coffers.

Newspeak is everywhere. Turn on the news on just about any given day and you're likely to hear of someone being convicted of a "sexcrime". I used to have "Unemployment Insurance" (since I was, obviously, insuring myself against being unemployed), but now it's "Employment Insurance" because God forbid my fragile, out-of-work ego be damaged as I am starving. Not that I was able to collect when I actually was unemployed because I failed to meet the convoluted criteria for collecting on the insurance the government forces me to buy.

The Ministry of Truth. Have you read a newspaper lately? Post-it notes are less yellow. Have you seen "The Patriot" or "Pearl Harbor"? Did you know that the US lost a war and that the White House was burned down by the victorious troops? If the Gulf War was about "democracy" why is it that Saddam Hussein was elected and Kuwait is an absolute monarchy? Meanwhile shit is happening in Afghanistan that would make Hitler blush but you hear next to nothing about it. I could bore you to death with examples.

Go ahead, pick anything. It's happening right now. It's just that it was done so gradually no one really noticed.