Paul Martin signaled Thursday that Canadians will pay whatever price necessary to keep his corrupt Liberal government in power. With pre-election bribery of the cities and other useful fools at over $8 billion and rising, Martin is now promising to send the Canadian Armed Forces into harms way to corral David Kilgour's vote. CBC:
The head of Canada's military returned recently from meeting with leaders of the African Union peacekeeping force that Canadian units would support."This is a complex and relatively dangerous environment," Gen. Rick Hillier told CBC News. Hillier said he has more than 30 officers working on the project but was mum on the specifics until he presents several options this week to Defence Minister Bill Graham. The minister wants military intervention to be only one part of an overall plan for the northeastern African country.
"We cannot invade Sudan. It requires United Nations action ... it requires political as well as military and aid matters," Graham told CBC.
"We cannot invade Sudan".
I'll allow the Monty Pythonesque absurdity of that disclaimer sink in for a moment...
The two-year-old Darfur conflict, stemming from the fallout of a peace deal to end the country's decades-old civil war, has driven about two million people from their villages to live in camps and killed 300,000 others.
"Stemming from the fallout of a peace deal". Well, that's putting a shine on things. Let's take a closer look at Sudan, courtesy of the BBC; Sudanese demand death for editor:
Angry crowds have demanded the death penalty for a Sudanese newspaper editor over an article allegedly questioning the parentage of the Prophet Muhammad. Hundreds of people waving banners and chanting "God is great" protested outside a court as Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed was charged over the article.[...]
Ali Shumi, the head of Sudan's Press Council, said the article insulted the Prophet Muhammad. He denied the charges were an assault on press freedom.
"Freedom of the press stops when it comes to respect for religions. Not just for Islam - if you said the same things about Jesus there would be the same punishment," he said.
Renouncing Islam in the Sudan carries the death penalty. I don't know what the consequences are for painting over a concrete stain bearing the image of the Virgin Mary .
Khartoum has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983 - but our correspondent says that in recent years courts have shown a degree of flexibility in their interpretations of Islamic law.The introduction of Sharia exacerbated a rebellion that had begun in the south earlier that year. The war officially ended with a peace agreement in December.
Martin won't allow Canadian troops into Iraq to support a post-war fledgling democracy, but he'll send them into Sudan to prop up a post-democratic dictatorship in Canada.
So, get out your scorecards. Now that Buzz Hargrove is Finance Motel Minister, and Kilgour is in charge of Foreign Affairs, Chuck Cadman should step up and take aim at the Defense portfolio.
If the independant MP from British Columbia is a clever scamp, he'll announce to waiting reporters that he can support the Paul Martin Liberals - if he reverses the government's position on Canadian participation in Ballistic Missile Defense.
Kilgour sold out. I guess his honour has a price & it has nothing to do with what is happening in the Sudan. Like the ineffective UN, we will try to "help" these people, just like the UN did with Iraq.
I am not in Kilgour's riding for which I am very thankful.
I am disgusted with the LPC.
I am disgusted with those who are not disgusted with the LPC.
Now, all the govmint has to do, is figure out how to get the troops there and back. (SNC-Lavelin will take care of the logistics on site).
I would be very surprised if the Sudan was the main factor at work here. I'm guessing it is the cover for which the Liberals can attribute his change of heart but I'd be willing to bet he was promised a senate seat. Since he won't win the riding nomination as a Conservative and he won't win an election as a Liberal he wants another way to remain in politics. He will be a senator within 12 months.
I'll defend Kilgours apparent negotiation but wont defend the Liberal motivations behind it.
If Rawanda was a horrendous sitaution this is it on a smaller scale. this one is religous AND ethnic conflict, not that that should make much of a difference. Marauding gangs are killing as proxies of the government, raping and other standard horrors of civil wars.
The inaction of the UN is amazing, once again something COULD be done if the UN snactioned it and this would actually be one of those situations that the UN was originally created for, not global internet taxes.
Kilgour's interest in this area is longstanding and genuine, so his motivations for asking really shouldnt be questioned. What he gives up to get the goal is worth asking.
The real blame lay with the fiberals, why now, how geneuine and how well thought through is this. If it isnt going to be done correctly dont do it, dont put troops in harms way for your own crass purposes.
I do recognize that if you come from a point of view that doesnt like Canadian troops being deployed unless it is in Canadian direct self interest then this is doubly disgusting ( a very legitimate point of view by the way)
I guess my point is, I wouldnt be calling Kilgour a sellout because if you look at his motivations you would see this being a genuine cause for him, regardless of your feelings about the cause. Layton, that was about serving his domestic constituency and enhancing his status, different tradeoff.
The blame defintiely lay with the Liberals, I worry more about their committment and if there is a plan beyond securing Kilgours vote, which I grant Kilgour should worry about as well.
Willy Graham (crackers) is, like General Jubilation T. Cornpone, leading from the rear.
Required reading for Willy & his General:
"The River War. An Account of the Re-Conquest of Sudan.
By: Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Includes Churchill's account of the last Cavalry charge ever. Churchill, a hero of this Canadian, was on horse at this charge. Combine this fact with Churchill's Nobel Prize winning prose: Enjoy.
Read about the Mahdi & etc.
Advice, free to Willy & Gen Hillier: Stay out of Sudan; it's a trap, a deathtrap. More of Somalia you want? Go, Willy. Lead from the rear.
The entire fantasy is beyond satire/parody.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4943
Download.
I guess the caller to Money Talks this A.M. was correct in his comparison of the Libranos to Al Capone. All they have to do is keep buying loyalty from special interest, and people of influence and they will maintain there power. Kilgour is another example of this, he's being bought off, and if he falls for it, where's his integrity.
Al Capone maintained his empire this way as well. He didn't have to murder anyone, he owned them.
Not to worry. Canadian troops won't be going to Darfur any time soon. You know all those people who opposed sending our troops to Iraq. They should be starting to protest against troops in Darfur any time now. Wait for it. Its coming. I think.
Nealenews
Off topic? On topic?
Svend: "I'm mentally ill." Headline!!!!!!!
Stop the presses!!!!!!!!!
Yes, it's on topic.
Print.
I think we all know who you mean Kate, but who is Jim Kilgour? I am sure you mean David or Dave Kilgour. He claims to have quit the Liberal party on a point of principle, the same sex marriage issue, and earlier in his career quit the Progressive Conservatives over the GST, but his principles weakened when the Chretien Liberals failed to cancel the GST as they had promised. Who remembers that he and John Turner are married to sisters? Did that have anything to do with his move to the Liberals? It seems to me that his record proves that his devotion to principles come in a poor second to his own self interest.
Aoun, anti-Syrian leader, returns to Lebanon.
Greeted by cheering throngs. Cnews.canoe.ca
It's George Bush's fault.
Winston Churchill was one of the first people to write a roadtest of the 1898 Mauser 'broomhandle' pistol. ( He claimed a couple of kills and a wounding with it, while riding on horseback). The essential difference between a cavalry pistol and the other kind, is a lanyard ring on it so you don't lose it)
Well lets remember this is canaduh talking.
First we have to get UN approval (because surely we cannot be seemn to be acting unilaterally) - optimistically six months.
Then we have to get a reasonable size force together - two years?
Then we have to find transport.
Non of this is meant to belittle our armed forces, but to point out the gap between political talk and actually doing something is shocking.
Perhaps we can by war credits from a capable nation -say Australia-just like the CO2 credits we seem to want to buy instead of actually doing something to achieve Kyoto.
Bill Graham and Paul Martin are only in this for the photo ops, if they sense this will alienate more than ten islamic votes in Ontario extend the estimates by a factor of two.
What a surprise -- Sell out Canadian Soldiers for a vote -- is there nothing this government won't do. Can't wait to see the weeping widows after this. Exactly how is the government going to respond to them. ... but then again it's not like they actually have to live up to this pledge - David Kilgour isn't running again and even if he were it took 12 years and Ken Dryden to set up hockey camp for kids!
Sounds like a peace making operation, not peace keeping. Do we have an exit strategy? How many Canadian soldiers will die in Darfur before we pull out? Quagmire? Will this became Canada's Vietnam? Will the media treat the people killing Canadians as insurgents or freedom fighters? Will the CBC have a larger contingent than the forces, as they are better funded? I can see the anti-war rallies signs now, "Martin Lied, People Died","No Blood for Peace" "Martin=Hitler", "Liberal=Nazi". (Anti-war types are sincere but not too original.)
Graham?Kilgour:
" I stink, Darfur I am."
(Apology to the late Rene Descartes.)
What I find most amazing about the last couple of months, is that Liberals keep polling well in Ontario and some parts of Canada. I find this more dicouraging than anything else. How can a country stay together with a large portion of its population completely tolerant of corruption, hypocracy, and lacking in COMMON SENSE. And worse yet, Harper is still percieved as being "scary". Scary compared to what? The pack of scumbags running this country. You could sell a lot of easterners sand, and tell'm it's coffee, and they'd believe you... as long as you were a Liberal. Trudeaupia Forever... amen!
"We cannor invade Sudan"
Good grief, we couldn't even invade New Brunswick!
The New Brunswick Aerospace and Defence
Association would take care of us.
Yes, it really does exist - or at least
it got federal money.
Cascadian - "war credits" - PERFECT!
The difference between us going into Sudan without UN sanction and Bush going into Iraq w/o UN sanction would be...what, exactly?
Kilgour has no integrity, never has.
DT, it's not that they are lacking in common sense in Ontario, but they are lacking information. When you are racing around like crazy trying to make ends meet, trying to pay all those whopping taxes, you don't have time to pay attention to anything except what the Liberal-beholding media have to offer.
The way I see it, our only hope is to get more and more people to the blogs (except for My Bahg).
I predict they drug test the unit they "plan" to send out shortly before deployment, over half of the soldiers will turn up positive for weed, and they'll use this excuse to weasel out of any fake overseas commitment. They already pulled this stunt once:
"VALCARTIER, QUE. - Seventeen soldiers at the Valcartier military base in Quebec have tested positive for illicit drug use, scuttling plans to send them to Afghanistan.
"Acting on a tip, military police used drug-detecting dogs to search lockers and offices at the base this week. They found and confiscated a small amount of drugs."
"A total of 29 soldiers in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment submitted urine samples to be tested for a variety of unspecified drugs. Ten of the samples were clear of drugs."
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/02/05/valcartier_drugs040205
Forget the international consensus to military action. Forget UN sponsoring resolutions. Forget consulting with constituants. Forget debate in parliament. Forget even consulting with caucus.
It appears Canada's first major troop decision since Afghanistan was done on the "back of a napkin" in some hotel room. Gee where have I heard that before.
Troop deployments are the most grave decision a leader can make, unless it means saving Martin's political skin. Then it becomes as dispensable as handing out a tip to the waiter at the country club restaurant.
I would be more worried that they would come back hooked on "Kat"
Now are these 150 soldiers or 150 Military personel...cooks and logistics experts? And how much backbone will the Liberals have when they are accused of being anti arab and anti muslim when they shoot their first janjaweed to prevent him from gangraping some poor woman.
I agree lets start sending our troops to iraq, afghanistan, or wherever else america wants us for whatever reason they tell us.
if they have to fix the facts to get our support,
I'm sure theres some good reason and it won't demotivate our guys not to know the truth of why they are killing and being killed.
Sudan on the other hand is a bonafide documented genocide happening now. The US stood by while Iraq massacred the Kurds (it was politically convenient seeing as Iran was the bigger evil, and Saddam and US were buddies)
It's criminal not to intervene when you have a chance - have you heard any eyewitness accounts of Rwanda? If it was happening in your backyard, are you saying you wouldn't try and do something to stop it?
Maybe If we don't kiss enough american ass they might not like us as much.
mock puppet's rant is aunty-American. Is he/its rant a cover/mask for Graham? Martin?Chretien?Kilgour?Layton?
Is its/his rant a hymn of praise for Castro, the Communist? An encomium for Saddam Maddas, the Butcher of Baghdad?
mock puppet's screed comes from the lefty fringe underground.
God Bless America.
Down with National Socialism.
Long live freedom and democracy.
Brain fart. I have no idea why I wrote "Jim" instead of David...
I support Harper of course. I support Harper's call for an $300 million election in the summer (LOL)
Harper is my man. With the right in power we can finally get rid of all those homosexual welfare druggies dragging this country down.
We could finally dismantle our faltering health care, and pitiful education systems sucking us dry.
Interesting comments....I have no idea who/what mock puppet is,except pronanly a Fiberal plant from its comments...As an ex-service member...let me just say that Martin has NO plan nor guts(not to mention that small problem of no troops)to send to Sudan or anywhere...PERIOD. And even if he did,how the hell would he get them there?? The Russki's and Americans are rather a bit busy right now and Cuba hasn't got any heavy transport abilities.Mind you his buddies in the Laughable Nations might help,but only if rape and pillage is quarenteed.As far as the troops firing on some ganjahead,ain't never gonna happen.You see,under OUR rules of engagement,we CANNOT return fire until fired upon,and then only with weapons that are not bigger/better then what is being used on us.And if you think the guys we are sent to corral don't know this,then your head is farther up your arse then a Liberal/NDP.
As far as Kilgour,I live in his riding,and he is and always his been an opportunistic pimp for waht ever cause will help him. 12 months for the senate post.Hell,I'll be surprised as shit if it ain't in 2 months!! Screechin Annie will make sure he gets is reward from the God-father.
Free the West
Per Ardua Ad Astra
Ask Mock Puppet if he's been served notice this week from an Ottawa lobbying firm? That should flush him out.
It is done - the news tonight - we are sending 150 soldiers to Darfur - one man can make that decision - do we not have a military command, tactical teams, anything????- is this country run by one man and his Earnscliffe backroom boys....
can this really be???????
Mockpuppet, if we are going to kiss American ass, as you suggest, we should get some practice in. You can start with mine.
Mockpuppet?
Ignore him. His logic is set on "auto-destruct".
With who? The un? Anybody?
I hope you get all 150 back.
m--k p---t may be r-d g---n or n--m.
could be sv--d or bl--gh.
it could be.
Cnews.canoe.ca
Kilgour & Martini & Sudan balony/salaim & etc.
Mratini is goona send in some used military equipment; Killgour says Canadia has to stamd for somesing in the whorld.
Seems Kilgore is fishing for ? ASenate seat/sinecure/heaven for placemen.
But, do not be cynicl, Canucks.
You can consider me sympathetic to the Canadian right, but you are absolutely wrong in your position in this case. I don't know this particular man's political history, but as a lover of freedom and a hater of tyranny and genocide, I stand with my President and with him on the issue of the Sudan. Even if this is a position he has taken for political expedience, it is the right one.
The UN is disgracefully again contorting the truth to stand aside and let these people be slaughtered. The UN has never stood between Islam (or any other entity) and ethnic cleansing. It is about time they are called to account, even if it's only rhetorically.
This man stands with the American government, the American people, with religious freedom, and on the side of right on this issue. The UN must be moved to take action against political Islam somewhere, if there is to be any hope for African democracy. Do you care at all for the welfare of African Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, pagans, atheists, etc? Do you care for liberty and human rights at all? Sudan is the front line in this fight.
If Canada were to take a frontline position in the UN to fight for human rights, even if it's just words on paper... there is hope that a spade will be called a spade and that this history cam at least be accurately recorded. Surely the least we can hope for.
Of course, Canada cannot take a frontline position in a real fight on the ground (disgraceful enough, thank liberals) but, I don't see where that has been proposed. Surely Canada can at least leverage the goodwill gained with the international America Haters Club by standing with them on the side of tyranny in Iraq, to speak on behalf of liberty in Sudan in the UN... If and only if the Canadian opposition doesn't crush it. Perhaps you have gained some influence with your real allies, the French and Germans to at least embarrass them with their response to the tragic truth of this situation.
Please, Canada do the right thing for a change. Help move the political will of the UN to do what they are bound by their Charter to do, or make them stare another genocide in the face and acknowledge their uselessness. Bring this to a vote on the floor or in the "Security" Council and make nations proclaim their positions.
God help the dead and dying, but the truth should at least be outed by their blood. Only then may something good for mankind come of this. Only then my we position international will to do better next time.
The Canadian right is so hopeless because it's rather like the American left right now... you don't really stand FOR anything. STAND FOR FREEDOM, please! Of course, demand the resources and power to back it up before committing to deploy it. Think principles and values. Put ALL of your real (not percieved) weight behind those.
The world is not fooled, and we all understand your diplomatic blah blah blah can only do so much, but at least let the blah blah blah speak for justice and truth. Americans understand that by Liberal design blathering and soft power is all you've got right now. Our only hope is that you will use that for freedom instead of tyranny. You're current allies might at least have to respond to a Canadian rhetorical (they have little else as well) principled position.
Tom, with all due respect - keeping in mind that the Canadian right was pretty much supportive of the Iraq war, this is not a case in which the Liberal government is leading a charge to stem the bloodshed in the Sudan.
They are at the brink of collapse, and are trying to buy the vote of a single MP by putting 150 Canadian soldiers we dont' have into harms way for pure political expediency.
Or not. They'll put them up in tents somewhere, give them busy work and wait until the first opportunity to pull out - if they're even sent at all.
Martin and the Liberals have done nothing for years. They have even profited from the situation. See:
http://alsocanadian.blogspot.com/2005/05/sudan-liberal-hypocrisy-hits-new-high.html
Doing the right thing my ass!