"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Canada's military is in Iraq by Herb Ruhs, MD Thursday, July 31, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Re Stands on guard by Bob D. I understand Bob D.'s incredulity about Canadians fighting in Iraq. I would suggest that he Google "Canadian troops in Iraq" in order to clear up his confusion. That's what I did. "In 2003 the Bush administration made clear that those countries that refused to participate in the Iraq invasion would not be allowed to bid for reconstruction contracts. Mr. Chrtien, that same year,
Because Canada is not officially part of the Coalition it is virtually impossible to determine how many Canadian troops have been killed in Iraq. (I was able to find no news sources, blogs, or watchdogs, Canadian or otherwise, with an updated number, and the Canadian Defense Ministry's website provides no information whatsoever about its personnel in Iraq.)" (LINK) One of the core problems with trying to understand these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that they are essentially one war theater with operational control of a vast array of different armed units, national armies, commercial contractors and mercenary forces and various national intelligence services under the putative control of US central command. Also contributing to the problem of understanding is the virtual absence of independent journalist covering these conflicts. Additionally, the military and their hired minions are conducting a huge parallel psychological war against the public in every country, but concentrating mostly on constructing a "public opinion" in those countries actively involved in these wars that has effectively obscured the true nature of these conflicts and lead many to hold beliefs that are not substantiated by the facts that are available. This leads to all sorts of plausible deniability being available to participating governments. As far as I can tell the Canadian government, contrary to its public pronouncements, is enthusiastically involved in the nebulous project of "The War on Terror." I don't see that the Canadian people, along with the populations of any of the participating nations, have any enthusiasm for these heinous wars. Hence the effort to hide their national governments involvements. I don't think there is a Maple leaf big enough to cover the genital involvement of Canadian government and commercial interests in the various wars in the Middle East. Sorry, for Bob's distress at this assessment. Herb Ruhs, MD The Republicans took their role as "opposition party" very seriously, and seriously opposed Bill Clinton from the day he 'took' office through impeachment and beyond. Hell, they're still opposing him. Helen & Harry As always the real truth behind the smoke screen of the news is murky and hard to make sense of (by intention of its authors). I am impressed with Webster Tarpley's analysis (listen to today's show on GUNS AND BUTTER). From Tarpley's perch it looks like there are shifting factions amongst the plutocrats who readily transfer support from one putative political leader to another depending on how well their administration serves the interests of the imperial project. Kennedy, Nixon, Johnson, Bush I, Carter, Clinton and now Bush II all suffered reversals late in their terms due to the displeasure, for one reason or another, of the plutocrats and suitable dramas were put in place to remove them from influence and power. The plutocracy (some call it the oligarchy but plutocracy is more accurate) replaces presidents like McDonald's replaces store managers. According to Tarpley, and I can see his line of reasoning, the last act of the Bush/Cheney regime was the attempted theft of the B52 with its load of nuclear missiles. The policy has now shifted back toward the ever resurrected "grand chessboard" (read the book by Zbigniew Brzezinski) approach and away from the Israel centered approach of the neo-conservatives, many of whom, like Perle, are jumping ship from the SS Neocon as it takes on water and lists badly. Good news is this is likely to mean no attack on Iran and more independence from Israeli objectives. Bad news is we are now bombing Pakistan, attacking every ally of China on the globe and encircling Russia with first strike weapons on their borders. The scenario where Pakistan decides to go for broke and fill near space with ElectroMagnetic Pulses becomes more possible by the day. Maybe my visualization exercises are having an effect. I would rather worry about how to feed six billion people without chemical fertilizer and insecticides than what to do after an actual major power exchange of atmospheric and ground detonating nuclear weapons. I see what we think about as "national politics" is mostly just the result of a grandiose flim-flam operation. I try to not take it too seriously. I try to call attention to bits of the script that show the least verisimilitude in hopes that people will start to think critically. Herb Ruhs, MD |
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