Thursday, March 29, 2007

The US Army's Errand-Boy?

Is that what the police are in Canada under Harper now? Given how bad the situation in Iraq is, can the desire to desert the US Army be anything other than an act of clarity and sanity? Why would Canada be in any particular hurry to round up deserters?

I think deep down, no matter what he says now with the advantage of hindsight, Harper wanted us in Iraq. Not because it was a moral or wise place to send our troops - we can now see that this war was neither moral nor wise - but because Harper's foreign policy priority is to keep Washington happy. Since Harper could not send in troops now without his government falling in a matter of weeks and being reduced to a rump in a subsequent election, he will do everything to provide aid and comfort to those in the US government - let's call them dead-enders - who want to stay in Iraq.

Canada cannot, in Harper's mind, be a haven for deserters - much less a platform from which they may critique their political masters.

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