Interfere:  people are getting hurt.

Don't interfere:  people are getting hurt.

Foreign policy:  Interfere or don't interfere, that is the question.

It's already out of control. Get used to it. Obama is Bush. Canada has become again what it was in 1900, cannon fodder to fight somebody else's imperial wars.

graeme,

those with wisdom know that if one intervenes, they are involved and if they don't intervene they are also involved.  Welcome to the global human spring and global agape.  Your Christ has won.

The US intervened BEFORE there was a rebellion. The US has never in its history fought a war to defend democracy anywhere. Nor has it fought a war because the people on the other side were "bad" guys. This is an American colonial war, set up by the US government to use regional rivalries against Ghadaffi - because he was looking to permit China to compete in Libya's oil market. He was also threatening to go off the US dollar for payment.

The human spring and agape have nothing to do with it. Nor does my Christ.

Living in a military city leaves me feeling so conflicted sometimes. I am completely against war - I believe it does far more harm than good. At the same time, because this is a small city, I know several people in the military (mostly, but not entirely, navy people) including two who are headed to Libya in a couple of weeks. My dilemma is, how do I support these people without supporting their actions???

It's not their actions that are the problem. It's our actions in electing a government that does this.

The best support for our troops is to make it clear we don't agree to sending them unless the enemy is attacking us - and we don't send themm to get killed to make the world safe for western billionaires.

I may face the same problem as you in a very painful way. M son is in cadets, loves it, and I can see him thinking of a milit ary career.

I taught military hist ory to militia (and some regular force) officers. I was impressed by their sense of military ethics and respect to the rules of war. Unfortunately, we send send them off to fight western imperialist wars, illegal wars - and we inflict on them death, or a life that is crippled both [hysically and mentally.

When you come down to ti, the problem is us for allowing a government to get away with that cynical and destructive behaviour.

What a deception though. The media just followed along it seems to me. We were going to keep Gadaffi from bombing his own people with a no fly zone. Then we (Nato) were bombing his compound and talking regime change. Were we totally lied to here or what? It makes me very cynical. It also seems like Canada the Peacemaker no longer exists. 

Canada the peacemaker is ancient history. We are accurately known around the world as an appendage of the US. The army brass always hated the peacekeeping role, and worked against it.

We are now being blended into the US. We fight its wars. Our securty is being revised to conform with US hysteria. Even out fruit has had its poison level raised to conform with US standards.

This, and much, much more is what 40% of the Canadian people decided they wanted.

graeme!

great analogies!  gots my idea-machine a-churnin'!

So we're being blended into the US?  How many flavours is that up to now?  31?

And Canada is an appendage of the US?  I wonder which one?

...cloaca?

...left ventricle?

...the nucleus (which is the gonad) of the cell?

...inferior vena cava?

...appendix (what is its purpose and identity again? oh yeah, we aren't the stomach!)

...labia majora?

...foreskin?

...optic nerve?

...corpus callosum?

...brain's right hemisphere?

Hmm :3

some of us - our business leaders - will be more blended than others.

Amen Graeme.

Criticism against government is not an attack on the people who serve.  It is a statement against the policies that are chosen.  Governments that wish to engage in unpopular activities consistently deflect that legitimate opposition and make it about people. 

Canada has embarked on a war culture.  It is a culture that will erode the principles that are supposedly being fought for and if it is allowed to grow it will not end well for any one.

LB

-------------------------------------------------

The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.
     Lester B. Pearson