{"id":448,"date":"2006-05-17T03:14:43","date_gmt":"2006-05-17T03:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=448"},"modified":"2018-08-22T17:23:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T21:23:09","slug":"wednesday-may-17-2006-i-tremble-for-my-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=448","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, May 17, 2006 \u2014 I Tremble For My Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

I trem\u00adble for my coun\u00adtry when\u00adev\u00ader I see the bland, pasty face of our new Prime Min\u00adis\u00adter, Stephen Harp\u00ader, on tele\u00advi\u00adsion. It\u2019s not that Harp\u00ader is dumb. He is actu\u00adal\u00adly quite clever, and stands out dra\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly in a par\u00adty that is noto\u00adri\u00adous\u00adly filled with igno\u00adra\u00admus\u00ades and bare\u00adly lit\u00ader\u00adate yahoos. It\u2019s not that Harp\u00ader is incom\u00adpe\u00adtent. He has shown remark\u00adable polit\u00adi\u00adcal acu\u00admen, and he ran his elec\u00adtion cam\u00adpaign bril\u00adliant\u00adly. It\u2019s not that he is dis\u00adhon\u00adest, or cor\u00adrupt. I\u2019ve seen no evi\u00addence of either. The prob\u00adlem is not that he is \u201csocial\u00adly con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive\u201d or pro\u00admot\u00ading a reli\u00adgious agen\u00adda. He shows no evi\u00addence of being any more social\u00adly con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive in his per\u00adson\u00adal views than the aver\u00adage Cana\u00addi\u00adan. Besides, there is not much mar\u00adket for the social con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive agen\u00adda in Cana\u00adda, where peo\u00adple remain, on the whole, indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adal\u00adis\u00adtic and fond of per\u00adson\u00adal lib\u00ader\u00adty. Cana\u00addi\u00adans find reli\u00adgious zealotry distasteful.<\/span><\/p>\n

The real prob\u00adlem is that he isn\u2019t Cana\u00addi\u00adan. He\u2019s not loy\u00adal to the coun\u00adtry he has been elect\u00aded to gov\u00adern. He sees him\u00adself as a colo\u00adnial agent for Wash\u00ading\u00adton. What\u00adev\u00ader poli\u00adcies he seeks to get in motion, they will have one, and only one ulti\u00admate pur\u00adpose: to please his boss, George W. Bush. It took only a few sec\u00adonds after his swear\u00ading in for him to start to dis\u00adplay the most shame\u00adless ass-kiss\u00ading in that regard. Most issues that con\u00adcern Cana\u00addi\u00adans have been rapid\u00adly shoved onto the back-burn\u00ader, to be replaced by a com\u00adplete\u00adly out-of-pro\u00adpor\u00adtion pre\u00adoc\u00adcu\u00adpa\u00adtion with get\u00adting Cana\u00adda more involved in Afghanistan, more direct\u00adly involved with Bush\u2019s pho\u00adny-baloney \u201cwar on ter\u00adror\u201d, and get\u00adting the Cana\u00addi\u00adan mil\u00adi\u00adtary more under the direc\u00adtion of Amer\u00adi\u00adcan commanders.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a con\u00adse\u00adquence, Cana\u00addi\u00adans are start\u00ading to be rather sus\u00adpi\u00adcious of our role in Afghanistan. Up until this point, most Cana\u00addi\u00adans have been quite sup\u00adport\u00adive of our pres\u00adence there. When the new \u201cdemo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic\u201d regime, which we were sup\u00adposed to be fight\u00ading to pro\u00adtect, sud\u00adden\u00adly con\u00addemned an Afghan cit\u00adi\u00adzen to death for con\u00advert\u00ading to Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty, there was a flash of sus\u00adpi\u00adcion, but it was not suf\u00adfi\u00adcient to change that opin\u00adion. Nor have casu\u00adal\u00adties been an issue, despite the fact the our most seri\u00adous casu\u00adal\u00adties where inflict\u00aded by Amer\u00adi\u00adcan \u201cfriend\u00adly fire.\u201d Cana\u00addi\u00adans, as far as I can tell, have nev\u00ader laboured under the bizarre delu\u00adsion that you can fight a war with\u00adout some of your sol\u00addiers get\u00adting killed. Cana\u00addi\u00adan sol\u00addiers are expect\u00aded to know what they are sign\u00ading up for. There has nev\u00ader been any need for idi\u00adot\u00adic gov\u00adern\u00adment mum\u00admery to cov\u00ader up the real\u00adi\u00adties of war, and nev\u00ader any ques\u00adtion that mere\u00adly hav\u00ading casu\u00adal\u00adties would weak\u00aden sup\u00adport for a mil\u00adi\u00adtary action.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I was pro\u00adfound\u00adly insult\u00aded when Harp\u00ader made attempts to dis\u00adcour\u00adage tele\u00advi\u00adsion cov\u00ader\u00adage of Cana\u00addi\u00adan casu\u00adal\u00adties. It was an impli\u00adca\u00adtion that Cana\u00addi\u00adans were fight\u00ading a U.S.-style fan\u00adta\u00adsy war. In such fan\u00adta\u00adsy wars, a gov\u00adern\u00adment churns out lies to pre\u00adserve the delu\u00adsion that they can be fought pain\u00adless\u00adly and effort\u00adless\u00adly and with\u00adout cost. Cana\u00addi\u00adans have nev\u00ader need\u00aded, or want\u00aded such delu\u00adsions. But Harp\u00ader assumes that we can be conned and manip\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded and pan\u00adicked as read\u00adi\u00adly as our cousins south of the line. I think he will have a star\u00adtling come-uppance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harper\u2019s pre\u00adoc\u00adcu\u00adpa\u00adtion with Afghanistan, and the par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar phras\u00ades he uses to dis\u00adcuss it, reveal what kind of crit\u00adter he is. Since the moment he was elect\u00aded, he has done vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly noth\u00ading but squawk par\u00adrot-talk from his master\u2019s vocab\u00adu\u00adlary. \u201cWe won\u2019t cut and run\u201d and \u201cour troops in harms way\u201d! These clich\u00e9 phras\u00ades were nev\u00ader in the Cana\u00addi\u00adan pub\u00adlic vocab\u00adu\u00adlary. They come out of Harper\u2019s mouth so eas\u00adi\u00adly because his mind does\u00adn\u2019t live in this coun\u00adtry. For all his blus\u00adter\u00ading and pos\u00ading as a cham\u00adpi\u00adon of the Cana\u00addi\u00adan mil\u00adi\u00adtary, it is per\u00adfect\u00adly obvi\u00adous that his only aim is to reduce the Cana\u00addi\u00adan armed forces to being a squad of latrine clean\u00aders for the U.S. military.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the moment, the U.S. forces are \u201ccom\u00admand\u00aded\u201d by a dis\u00adgust\u00ading, spine\u00adless, sim\u00adper\u00ading lit\u00adtle cow\u00adard who struts around on air\u00adcraft car\u00adri\u00aders pre\u00adtend\u00ading to be some kind of war\u00adrior. In real\u00adi\u00adty, he would piss his pants, if con\u00adfront\u00aded with any real dan\u00adger to his pathet\u00adic lit\u00adtle quiv\u00ader\u00ading bum. He would sell out his coun\u00adtry in a sec\u00adond. The idea of Cana\u00addi\u00adan armed forces being even indi\u00adrect\u00adly under the com\u00admand of a crea\u00adture like GeorgieWorgie Bush, frankly, makes me sick to my stomach.<\/span><\/p>\n

For gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions, Cana\u00addi\u00adans strug\u00adgled to get rid of a polit\u00adi\u00adcal upper crust that had its pri\u00adma\u00adry loy\u00adal\u00adty to Lon\u00addon, not to Cana\u00adda. It took two world wars and an incred\u00adi\u00adbly high rate of casu\u00adal\u00adties, to wean our\u00adselves of those bozos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we are grad\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly, and deft\u00adly being suck\u00adered into colo\u00adnial sta\u00adtus by anoth\u00ader bunch of clowns who think the same way, except it\u2019s the White House they bow to, now, instead of White\u00adhall. Will Harp\u00ader and his crowd suc\u00adceed? Prob\u00ada\u00adbly not. Every time he opens his mouth, he adver\u00adtis\u00ades, with every par\u00adrot\u00aded phrase, that he is not one of us. It won\u2019t take long for Cana\u00addi\u00adans to fig\u00adure it out.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I trem\u00adble for my coun\u00adtry when\u00adev\u00ader I see the bland, pasty face of our new Prime Min\u00adis\u00adter, Stephen Harp\u00ader, on tele\u00advi\u00adsion. It\u2019s not that Harp\u00ader is dumb. He is actu\u00adal\u00adly quite clever, and stands out dra\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly in a par\u00adty that \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-au-blog-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9588,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/9588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}