My Country Now

I'm trying very hard to believe that Canada's supposed leadership of the NATO forces in Afghanistan is still something of which we ought to be boast or even believe. Because if the Canadian command structure is involved in any way, any way whatsoever, in bringing down a midnight air raid by the US Air Force on an Afghan village then Hillier's words about protecting the weak and vulnerable are as empty as Stephen Harper's eyes.

Juxtapose that with CNN's story about Canada's sabotage of the Kyoto Accord and one begins to wonder what country we live in now.

If - I say again if - Canadian leadership of the forces deployed in Kandahar province remained silent and compliant in the face of or following this US midnight strike then my continuing support for the Afghanistan mission comes into sharp question. If Canadian forces are revealed to have called it in - my support is vapourized along with the civilian Afghan lives destroyed.

If - I say again if - Canada is joining the US and Australia in actively sabotaging the only major international agreement that even makes an attempt, as difficult as it may be, at addressing global warming then any leeway I might have been willing to grant the Harperites is toast and they didn't have a lot from me to begin with.

As to the first point - if Canadian commanders called it in or condoned it through silence then I make the prediction here that it's only a matter of time till we find out that Canadian forces have been involved in atrocities like this weekends revelation of US Marines and the "Haditha massacre". We will one day be privileged to read a Canadian soldiers version of the recent testimony by a US soldier of the technique of questioning Iraqi civilian families that involved shooting children in the head until the father answered questions.

My faith in the passivity of Canadian media culture almost guarantees that we will one day have that indescribable pleasure.

My cynicism about the smug superiority of the Canadian population almost guarantees that we'll have to endure it more than once.