Subject:
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Don't know how this'll be received
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 4 Mar 2005 15:41:48 GMT
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Viewed:
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710 times
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Considering that sometimes I've been 'pro Canada' in the past...
but anyway--
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/3/10423/16639
In which former Foreign Minister of Canada, Lloyd Axwothy, wrote an open letter
to Condi--
"
By LLOYD AXWORTHY
Dear Condi, I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture
north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two.
Maybe more.
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House
that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system
that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were
carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who
can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
"
"
Sure, that doesn't match the gargantuan, multi-billion-dollar deficits that your
government blithely runs up fighting a "liberation war" in Iraq, laying out more
than half of all weapons expenditures in the world, and giving massive tax
breaks to the top one per cent of your population while cutting food programs
for poor children.
Just chalk that up to a different sense of priorities about what a national
government's role should be when there isn't a prevailing mood of manifest
destiny.
"
and my favourite bit--
"
Your boss did not avail himself of a similar opportunity to visit our House of
Commons during his visit, fearing, it seems, that there might be some signs of
dissent. He preferred to issue his diktat on missile defence in front of a
highly controlled, pre-selected audience.
Such control-freak antics may work in the virtual one-party state that now
prevails in Washington. But in Canada we have a residual belief that politicians
should be subject to a few checks and balances, an idea that your country once
espoused before the days of empire.
If you want to have us consider your proposals and positions, present them in a
proper way, through serious discussion across the table in our cabinet room, as
your previous president did when he visited Ottawa. And don't embarrass our
prime minister by lobbing a verbal missile at him while he sits on a public
stage, with no chance to respond.
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and to sum it up--
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Above all, ignore the Cassandras who deride the state of our relations because
of one missile-defence decision. Accept that, as a friend on your border, we
will offer a different, independent point of view. And that there are times when
truth must speak to power.
"
There are times when truth must speak to power.
Can someone start letting Dubya know what the truth really is? Maybe a radical
concept like 'The Free Press'?
Dave K
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