Unhappy with his plans to pull out of Afghanistan combat operations being ignored by everyone, Dion struck out on a new tack today.
Jack! is sure to have some fun with this.
Cheers,
lance
Unhappy with his plans to pull out of Afghanistan combat operations being ignored by everyone, Dion struck out on a new tack today.
Jack! is sure to have some fun with this.
Cheers,
lance
Why do opposition leaders get to run around and stick their noses in the business of the government? Since when do we have one official delegation and three other delegations of contrarians…who the hell cares what Layton/Duceppe/Dion think outside of their shrieks of protest from Ottawa.
You don’t see failed presidential candidates in the US flying around the world opposing their governments.
Clowns…all of them
“More of M. Dion’s ignorance”
Mark
Ottawa
What Dion is saying is probably true if you believe that we canadian and quebecois have the God given mission to save afghanistan.
But then.. what happen in Afghanistan is just a consequence of Islamist and ignorance. You cannot fix the problem without going after the cause. Just trying to fix the consequence is just a endless job that could take 1000 yrs
The cause is ignorance and religion. We need better science teaching in Islam countries. I say… ship them copies of the “God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins.
Fife commented on this latest stupidity..said this will mean big problem for Libs.Can you just imagine if this clown was PM? Foreign Affairs,as well as environment would be an absolute disaster.
“Why do opposition leaders get to run around and stick their noses in the business of the government? Since when do we have one official delegation and three other delegations of contrarians…who the hell cares what Layton/Duceppe/Dion think outside of their shrieks of protest from Ottawa.”
Only Liberals can stop global warming, wasteful spending and corruption in Ottawa. The business of govt is to be in business…duh!
the only way that the liberals could stop corruption in ottawa is if they all left
Wow! Dion goes and talks with Karzi and finds/figures out about Pakistan. Now I have not spoken to President Karzi but figuring out the role of Pakistan is a no brainer and if Dion has to go and speak to the boots on the ground before he understands this reality then we are seeing just another example of his lack of talent.
He must have really been pi**es off when the conservatives let on about his possible plans. ( during or after his excursion, to late for much effort by the Taliband). So much so that he decided to tell the taliban that Nato/Canada should be attacking them in their strong holds in Pakistan. That must have made our military folk wonder what was wrong with the man. Canadian’s should be wondering too. To think about going into Pakistan is one thing, to say it out loud is quite another.
The more I think about it the worse it seems.
Dion and Layton are both supercilious twits – neither has the credibility or perspicacity to discuss the war on terror or engagement of Canadian Troops.
The LIEberals would invade Pakistan, hah!
Ever since Trudeau the military has been emasculated by the LIEberals. We still haven’t got our helicopters from the failed EH-101 cancellation in 1993.
Now CF are going to invade a country of 160 million people which has nuclear armaments, when we should pull out of Afghanistan and we are only helping out in Kandahar?
Mr. Dion has spent too much time in the Afghan poppy fields with his hooka pipe or ‘chillam’.
A little too much ‘wacky tabacky’.
Absolutely priceless!
Analysts have known about the cross border activities of the Taliban for years in the Waziristan provinces and now this is news!?!
Well, Obama said he would go into Pakistan, so that’s probably why Dion thinks it’s a good idea:
And let me start with you, Senator Obama, because it was you who said in your foreign policy speech that you would go into western Pakistan if you had actionable intelligence to go after it, whether or not the Pakistani government agreed. Do you stand by that?
OBAMA: I absolutely do stand by it, Charlie. What I said was that we should do everything in our power to push and cooperate with the Pakistani government in taking on Al Qaida, which is now based in northwest Pakistan. And what we know from our national intelligence estimates is that Al Qaida is stronger now than at any time since 2001.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4092530&page=1
Oh those Liberals, always copying their American heroes.
OK Joan now I get the joke:
Obama Bin Laden!!
Separate Frog: you invoke God in stating that there could be a God-given mission to save Afghanistan. And then you claim God is part of the problem. You Frogs have always had a problem with logic.
Go smoke your Gaulois and sip Pernod while the Americans actually save the world, and bugger off. Oh, I forgot, you’ll all be gone in a couple of generations. The world will only have Americans and Muslims and Chinese. The rest (including especially your type) will have gone down the existential toilet.
“He has to explain to Canadians why he wants an “intervention” but wants to turn his back on Afghanistan, which has asked and continues to ask for Canada’s help. It’s inane.”
I think the “reporter” left out the “s”
Okanagan said, “You don’t see failed presidential candidates in the US flying around the world opposing their governments.”
Sorry, but John Kerry hasn’t hesitated to criticize George Bush in foreign venues, and Al Gore has been harshly critical of the US for not swilling the Climate Change Kool-Aid.
And not just failed candidates, either. Jimmy Carter, arguably the worst ex-president in history, has been as anti-American as any third world thug the last few years.
No, the Americans have their own loons who forget that partisanship is supposed to end at the water’s edge.
Geez is it any wonder Steffie’s on the bottom rung of the leadership approval rating ladder.
I suspect he will be in the single digit ranking by the next leadership poll, after that Pakistan brain fart.
I imagine iggies smirk got a little bit bigger after that . He probably planted the seed .
“We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan.”
So… I gather Stephen Colbert is a Dion foreign policy adviser?
had stockwell day said something like that when in opposition it would be on the stupid headline list for two weeks.
must be another of Borat Dion’s missed pry whorities.
Ann Coulter said it – liberals want to fight every battle except the one we’re currently fighting.
Well, I’d almost give steffie credit for pointing out one fact except that it is no real secret: Taliban are using the border area of Pakistan as a safe area. The problem is that in that neck of the woods, even the Pakistani government are considered invadors. It is a border in name only. Kind of like “da hood” or whatever they call the areas of New york, LA or toronto where the cops only go into when absolutly necessary and with great numbers and a planned escape route.
Now would steffie approve of NATO troops coming in to Canada to clear out aboriginal criminals hiding on reserves on the Canadian side of the border?
“You cannot fix the problem without going after the cause. Just trying to fix the consequence is just a endless job that could take 1000 yrs.”
Posted by: quebecois separatiste at
For sure. Some days the problems in the middle east seem as intractable as Quebec Separatism.
Leftist Quickfixes And Other Solutions!
Invade a nuclear ally which is totttering on the edge of an Islamist uprising.
And these people -Obama, Dion etc accuse Bush of incompetence.
I don’t entirely agree with the prevailing opinion here. Dion is correct (I believe) in noting that the Taliban are hitting and running back to safe ground in Pakistan, and that this must be addressed before we can have any sort of sustainability of “peace” in Afghanistan.
BUT, unilateral actions against Pakistan?! No way! Pakistan must grant permission for NATO and/or Pakistani forces supplemented by NATO forces must close in behind the border region as NATO advances on the border region from Afghanistan.
And I think some of you are misinterpreting the separatist. Long-term peace in the middle east MUST deal with controlling Islam…and education is a big part of that.
To pick up on Eeyore’s point, if Dion were to go the next step he could actually sound like a statesman. By his now recognizing Pakistan as harbouring terrorists, just as Syria and Iran were around Iraq; Dion’s logical progression would move on to acknowledging who the enemy really is: Islamofascism. Then he would be clarifying “the root cause” and that Afghanistan and Iraq were not “Wars” but merely “Battles” in the larger region.
Such an acknowledgment would be helpful in framing the road ahead of us in the War on Islamofascism which, like communism, will take decades to defeat.
However, as Joan Tintor says above, Dion is just parroting Obama and lurching into foreign policy that he has not thought through. That’s what liberals do … lurch.
Poor Dion … he reminds me of the Joe Clarke cartoon wearing mitts on a string to keep from losing them.
While I rejoice watching a Liberal suggest more war is a better solution , Dion is technically correct.
The situation on Afghanistan is not that different from Vietnam in some ways. The lawless region of Pakistan is Pakistan in name only on a map , and has effectively become the new hideout for terrorists. It is a source of weapons, and terrorists helping to destabilize Afghanistan
Sure Dion is technically correct, but is he just finding this out NOW? He needed Karzai to tell it to him in person before he figured it out?
JCL
Sure Dion is correct but lets look at what he is saying: we should leave Afghanistan and invade Pakistan.
How does that make sense?
Just happened to notice that there is Nothing on Dion’s Invasion Plans on CTV.ca Yet there is the article on McKay’s comments Re: US Defence Sect.Gates calling Nato troops slackers. “Mackay Downplays US Critique of Afghan Mission” & More on Khadr today.
If that Comment by Dion had of been made by MacKay this would be beeming Headlines for the Next month.
Lets remember Who was a part of the government that got us into this Afghan mission in the first place & who was a part of the cabinet that seen canada moved to a more dangerous role a few years later.
Now Dion thinks we should invade Pakistan? MacKay was polite in his remarks to that comment, Ludicrous! No Insane, off his friggin stick & this guy wants to lead the country.
The liberals today are insisting today that is not what Dion meant.
Ya, Right!
*
what about steffi’s demands that heads must roll because
his afghan itinerary had been posted ahead of the trip?
who really believes that his weaselly life was in danger from
the jihadis? i betcha he’s polling better among the
insurgents… than he is here at home.
if he’d have been a little smarter about that… he could have
found himself an important position in the taliban shadow
cabinet.
*
*
“quebecois separatiste said… that we canadian and quebecois”
so, you’re saying the vandoos aren’t canadian?
in your dreams, milquetoast.
*
For 2 yrs the libs and media have bashed PMSH for supposedly following US foreign policy. Now, we see that Dion wants to follow the foreign policy of a candidate for the US highest office. Invade Pakistan. And, neither of them are elected leaders. So who is giving Dion his talking points, the democrats or the taliban.
Can’t wait to see the election ad with Dion saying, We must invade Pakistan. We must concede defeat in Afghan. Elect liberals and we will be in a nuclear war.
“Liberal leader Stephane Dion said Wednesday that incursions into Pakistan may be necessary for success in Afghanistan.”
Probably the only truthful and sighted thing I’ve heard this mutt say…gotta be a mistake.
As has been said many times by pragmatic military experts…Canada and our allies have won the Afghan war… 5 times….each time the Taliban retreats to Pakistan to regroup, recruit and rearm…it was pointless policing Afghanistan as long as we are not allowed to attack and neutralize the Taliban staging camps in Pakistan.
The problem here is the media continue to try to bring down the Conservative government using all their usual tactics.
This, in spite of the mess the Liberals are in and with a useless leader, they want the Liberals and themselves back on the gravy train which they’ve all become used to.
What other reason would the media have for playing banana republic games, skewing facts to manipulate opinion?
This outrageous statement by Dion will have a short life, Puffin Iggy will call it poop and cover it up.
Meddling media is a dangerous thing in this democracy. They’re treating we the people as idiots.
Just a thought people, but if Canadian Armed Forces are not equipped with the right stuff now how can they expect to fight more area and people in Pakistan.
If the Taliban wants to continue to fight the guerrilla tactical fighting from the Northern Pakistan there is not much they can do about it until it is OK-ed by NATO.
Pakistan has a president that has not even been elected. It has a Political Candidate that has been murdered, “and they would not even say if she was killed by being shot or bombed”. How in hell can you even think about trusting a country like this. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and they have to be accountable for there actions to the rest of the world or they will be no different from a dictator in what used to be Afghanistan.
We just gave Afghanistan 80 million dollars to better prepare for UED bombs, maybe that should of went to a few of them so called little spy planes. Finding out where they were crossing the border and shooting them with no mercy.
You can not fight any war and be nice about it. Casualties are going to be high, media is going to be on your back, politicians will visiting front lines with protection up their kazoo. All this money could be going for upgrades for the equipment needed. The people in the front lines doing the job can see the problem but it never gets exposure to fix it without the political process in the way. Merle Underwood
Just watched the CTV Dion interview from Afstan. Hard to believe, but this guy makes Paul Martin seem like Winston Churchill, in comparison…..
Now now people lets follow the dots. DeYawn wants to invade Pakistan because Pakistan is providing arms and personel to the Taliban. As soon as we ivade Pakistan it will be evident that Iran is supplying arms and personel to Pakistan therefore we must invade Iran.
Therefore DeYawn is Bush lite.
While the Afghan/Pakistan border is an obvious problem (Dion just figured this out?), no credible politician or military leader is advocating actually invading Pakistan with a large force. Sorry, Obama doesn’t qualify – he is woefully inexperienced and most of his policies are contradictory (eg-make Iraq more secure by withdrawing troops, make business more efficient by regulating it more), and it’s unlikely that US voters will entrust him with Presidency (oooh, racism, racism!!).
It seems like Dion just made the Pakistan connection. IMO, we need to seal off the Pakistani border with Afghanistan with a large robust force with ROE that makes it fatal, and therefore extremely dangerous, for Taliban types to cross over. Additionally, some kind of “hot pursuit” agreement could be made with the Pakistani government.
We must never forget that the Pakistani ISI installed the Taliban in Afghanistan (foreign interference not including Dubya, say it isn’t so!). It’s not as simple as Taliban crossing back and forth betweend those two countries – they are being given sanctuary, replenishment and training in Pakistan. We must nail them as they try to cross the border (yes, many greater military presence required).
Advocating an invade Pakistan policy reeks of opportunism, naivety and ignorance on part of Dion. It’s this policy on the fly approach he takes that will finish him and the Grits in an election campaign, where policy alternatives, rather than shotgun criticism is required.
The Grits know it and are on the horns of a dilemma – get humiliated in next election, but get rid of Dion, or wait around for 2009 in the faint hope that some bad news will make his party seem electable.
If Grits actually believed polling will translate into election results, they would have already forced an election.
How many IED attacks against our troops since Dion was there. How many attacks in the months prior to his visit. Seems his plan is working, telling the taliban we will leave, if a few more of our troops are killed. I blame dion for the latest death and attacks in Afghan.
The way this was spun on the CBC yesterday,Dion was clearly stressing a “diplomatic” intervention by NATO.
I wondered at the time did they mean the UN.
Surely even this Liberal vaudeville team would NEVER dare scare their leftist base with suggestions of endorsing invading Pakistan,even if they privately believed it valid.
Something stinks with this report.
Steffi and Puffin Iggy could be billed as a real live performance of “The Nutty Professors” revisited.
Simpsons coined a good word, very descriptive, specially when applied to the educated lunatics like Dion: dorkus.
Yes, Pakistan is a nuclear power. Unfortunately, Stefane [sp?] Dion is correct. We must steel ourselves; war in Pakistan is highly likely, and we can’t walk away from it. I am glad Dion said so.
Salafism and Deobandiism have been growing and strengthening for the last two centuries. There will be no quick cure. We will not see peace in our time.
As loopy & flip floppy as Dion is,he does bring up an issue that will have to be delt with sooner or later.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/01/pakistani_troops_aba.php
The only key differences between Dion and Mr. Bean are:
1. Mr. Bean walks faster; and
2. Mr. Bean is much, much smarter (Rowan Atkinson is an electrical engineer – B.Sc. and M.Sc.)
Aaron–if memory serves, it was dorkus malorkus.
Anyhow, this is the first time I’ve been at a computer screen today, and I have been anxiously (almost gleefully) awaiting the day, to see how the Mop & Pail, Red Star, CTV and C(ommunist)BC would treat it. I never imagined that it would be almost completely ignored. Like many have said already, had this been MacKay’s musings, the media would be destroying him for months. Instead, nothing to see here.
But now, to me, it’s no wonder we can’t understand half of what Dion says–his foot is always stuck in his mouth.
Just to put things in perspective I have to mention, that as a general rule, I like Liberals. I vote Conservative, but I don’t have the dislike for Liberals like I do for the socialists. But this Dion is just plain stupid and it is extremely dangerous to have such a man speaking on foreign relations. That’s all I have to say.
Let’s not get too excited, it was a Liberal “leader” who made the gaffe, it will go the way of Puffin poop. The media has already said since the HOC isn’t sitting and it’s not an election campaign,it won’t have any consequences, in other words, they don’t want to talk any more about it.
Stephen Taylor did what the media would not, and contacted the press officer for the Pakistan High Commission.
http://www.stephentaylor.ca/archives/000933.html
“Pakistan condemns Dion’s foreign policy ignorance”
“PRESS RELEASE
We are dismayed by the statement of the leader of opposition, Mr. Stephane Dion about NATO intervention in Pakistan. It shows a lack of understanding of the ground realities. We have, at the highest level, made it clear that Pakistan will not allow any foreign forces to operate within its territory under any circumstances. The sovereignty of the state will not be compromised at any level as the government and people of Pakistan are fully capable of handling their security matters themselves…….”
More at the site…
What DUMDUM dion didn’t say is that the NATO troops will be US MARINES as Canadian, French, Holland, etc. troops will be busy hiding under beds in Kandahar, on orders of Dion and other gutless heads of state. What schools did Dion teach at? Hamas U, Taliban Tech?
Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, who sat beside Mr. Dion when he made the remark, insisted yesterday the party was not advocating a military role for NATO in Pakistan…
…maybe Coderre can hold a big enough press conference so our political position could be made crytal clear with quotes like ” There’s no way that we will send troops or stuff like that.”
Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, who sat beside Mr. Dion when he made the remark, insisted yesterday the party was not advocating a military role for NATO in Pakistan…
…maybe Coderre can hold an even bigger press conference so the opposition’s position could be made crystal clear with quotes like ” There’s no way that we will send troops or stuff like that.”