Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A trifling matter of the will of the people

The Globe and Mail today has a predictably rapturous response to John Manley's predictably bellicose Afghanistan report.

Christie Blatchford actually reports getting weepy over it she loves it so much (They get it, they really get it.), while on the editorial page jowls quiver manfully in righteous approval for Manley's 'eloquent and impassioned case for extending Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan'.

The little matter of the Canadian people's overwhelming disapproval for the mission and the overwhelming desire for it to end immediately if not sooner is barely mentioned at all, and only in the context of the government's failure to explain it to us well enough. Is it perhaps condescending and patronizing to propose that the only reason we silly citizens don't overwhelmingly support rather than overwhelmingly oppose this mission is that we just don't get it? To even ask the question means you are a deeply un-serious person and should just leave these matters to the grownups to handle.

To the Globe and Mail the will of the people isn't even a factor in this decision apart from mild criticism of the government's failure to successfully sell us on it.

Then there's the insulting pantomine that Manley has set stern conditions of increased NATO troop support if we're going to stay. Manley's report is no blank check for the Prime Minister pontificates Brian Laghi. If NATO doesn't step up, we'll be on our way.

Of course then Lewis Mackenzie lets the mask slip a little by pointing out that the previously announced 3000 marines promised by US Defense Secratary Robert Gates (With some sneering at our troops efforts as an extra bonus) can easily be spun as meeting the tough new conditions Manley has stuck the PM with.

Meanwhile the Toronto Star points out that the report is just a stern call for more of the same.

1 comment:

PMSteve said...

Manley yes, but I like it too

The Report of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan is a Triumph of the Will of the New Government of Canada.

But more importantly, it is a Triumph of the Spirit of Canadian Bi-partisanship - a Liberal and Conservatives coming together to defeat a common enemy in time of war.

Not the Taliban but another fanatical cult that is a greater threat to the Canadian military -- the pacifist cabal of Liberal leader Quasimodo, Bloc Cheesehead and the Moustache that Roared. When will these fanatics wake up to the fact that sometimes you just have to kill poor people to help them, it's the only humane thing to do.

...Some terrorist-huggers and pacifistopaths are trying to make a big deal of how GI Johnny plagiarized his Chair's Forward to the report from an article he wrote in Policy Options last October. How absurd, how irrelevant can you get. Even closet wikipedophiles should know that the definition of plagiarism is stealing someone ELSE's work -- it is impossible to plagiarize yourself.

Secondly, these mind-numbing morons obviously have no idea how democratic governments work. The whole point of an "Independent Panel" on policy options is to produce a report with predetermined conclusions. What better way than to have an pre-existing article from the Panel Chair that serves an introduction to the required report.

...read more at http://www.notstephenharper.com

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