Wente tries to shift the Bush paradigm.

Dr. Dawg's post yesterday puts the outrageous behaviour of Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai to the question completely and comprehensively.

Today, the Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente demonstrates how much she liked Dr. Dawg's post.

Despite the coincidental reassembly of words, she did stay true to form and made certain that she misrepresented enough to keep her page readable to her following.

Personally, I doubt anyone can fix Afghanistan - not even Barack Obama. But both conservatives and liberals have become quite attached to this war. Conservatives think the war will improve security in the West. Liberals think the war will improve the Afghans' lot. And because the UN approves of it, they think it is an exercise in benign humanitarian intervention rather than hubristic imperial overreach.

In which Wente, realizing the Conservative effort is no longer a Harper pet project, tries to weave her personal interpretation of a mythical liberal belief into an attachment for war.

Mr. Obama's 42-nation coalition of the willing has embraced the folly of imperial responsibility, formerly known as the White Man's Burden.

Cough!!!

Aside from the glaring similarity to Dr. Dawg'spost, (where he does a spectacularly better job of describing the White Man's Burden paradigm), is the attempt by Wente to shift a despised Bush-era term onto Obama.

The "Coalition of the Willing" belongs to George W. Bush and his conservative kool-aid drinkers; nobody else. Bush owns it. Obama inherited the dog's breakfast left by Bush-43 - not the psycology, not the disposition and certainly not the lexicon.

And in this little statement, she misses the point.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Karzai's Western allies - especially Canada - are horrified. Our Foreign Affairs Minister spoke sternly to some Afghan cabinet ministers, and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day demanded a "definitive answer" on the situation. Alas, Canadian scolding isn't likely to do much good. Mr. Karzai is the democratically elected leader of an independent country, one that Canadian soldiers are dying to protect. The government has the right to pass any laws it wants.

And we are not obliged to waste lives and treasure defending legislated subjugation by any nation.