It is also a nation with a large population of disadvantaged Muslims replete with a great many angry, frustrated, unemployed young men—another legacy of its imperial past.
Western leaders seem to assume that Islamic terrorists appear fully formed, materializing out of the ether almost without cause. In fact, they materialize out of generations of Western imperialism acting on the Muslim peoples of the Middle East. The Paris attacks are the latest result, and the latest lesson, of Western meddling in Middle Eastern affairs.
As for President Obama, he is being disingenuous. ISIS is a direct outcome of the wrecking of Iraq by the U.S. and its coalition partners. If the Paris attacks were indeed carried out by ISIS, then the U.S. and its allies are partly responsible. They have an obligation to deal with the monster they unintentionally created. They have an obligation to clean up their mess.
We don't. We wisely opted out of the Iraq invasion. Now Prime Minister Trudeau has promised to opt out of the bombing campaign against ISIS and appears intent on keeping his word. No Canadians should be put at risk because of the imperial adventurism of the Americans and their partners in crime. We are not an imperial power and have no need to reap the whirlwind of those that sowed the wind.
Excellent post. You and Graeme Decarie agree. And so do I.
ReplyDeleteWe'll know establishment Canada finally sees the light when Peter Mansbridge does the late night CBC news live from the streets of Baghdad after yet another bombing, with interviews from all those who somehow survived. Before Bush and that lying viper Blair decided to invade Iraq, and knock off hundreds of thousands of civilians because of zero believable intelligence after 9-11, Iraqis did not blow each other up.
So we kill hundreds of thousands and it's just fine. The IS followers kill a few hundred in Paris, and they're barbarians and the West is not.
I've been around for three score years ten, and the utter racist BS we get fed here in the so-called civilized West is beyond belief. Basically it's all right for us to kill them, but not the other way around.
And the French intellectual habit of confining Muslims to enclaves until they come to their senses is indicative of the most racist attitude of the lot.
All true, Bill, but damned few Canadians are willing to hear of these things. With every incident such as this it becomes clearer how effectively we've been conditioned over the past few decades.
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