The Shotgun Blog
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Next Time, Call Canada
Canadian blogger Chris Almeny has advice for milblogger Citizen Smash - "*Some* Americans need to learn that the United States is not and need not be the "Superman" of the world.".
Smash takes it to heart.
Twice in the past hundred years, the United States sent troops to Western Europe to fight for "freedom." To the people of France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and Austria, we offer our most heartfelt apologies for interfering in your affairs. Please rest assured that it won’t happen again.To the peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia, Indonesia, Indochina, the Philippines (again), China, and Korea, for whom America spent so much blood and treasure to free from the "oppression" of the Japanese Empire, we're sorry. We’re sure that you could have handled the matter much better without our "assistance."
After subjecting their citizens to all-out war, the United States forced Germany, Japan, and Italy to "democratize." We apologize for being so presumptuous. In retrospect, we should have trusted you to come up with your own form of government -- we’re certain you would have been much better off in the long run, left to your own devices.
We apologize to the people of South Korea for "defending" you from your brothers to the north. This was clearly an internal matter for Koreans to decide, and we had no business meddling in your affairs.
The Trudeaupian left's vision for Canada has come to fruition - from "punching above our weight" to "peacekeeper nation" to punchline.
Posted by Kate McMillan on January 25, 2005 in Military | Permalink
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Canadian blogger Chris Almeny has advice for milblogger Citizen Smash - "*Some* Americans need to learn that the United States is not and need not be the "Superman" of the world.". Smash takes it to heart. Twice in the past... [Read More]
Tracked on 2005-01-25 1:30:25 PM
Comments
I am American-born, but lived in Toronto for 17 years and became a (dual) Canadian citizen while there. I returned to the US some 13 years ago.
I recommend people take a second look at Pierre Burton's "Why We Act Like Canadians". It gave me a way to value the Canajan --which is often, I suspect, confused with the Ontario Liberal-- way of looking at the world. Yet I have come to see that while it might be advantageous to Canada to act more like America in relation to the rest of the world (though hardly possible now), it would not be advantageous to America, or the world, for the US to act like Canada does.
Even while I was living in TO, I realized that I had moved to the "sidelines of empire". Even if you are picturesque, well-behaved and have a sense of social responsibility, that cannot replace being enormous, dynamic to the point of unstable, restless, driven and successful. And the world treats you very differently. Canada is like a planetary Mr. Rogers (forgive the American cultural reference). It might be nice if everyone were more like him, but...they ain't. In fact, most of the world is run by and has always been run by the Sopranos (again, the cultural ref). To handle that, you need a combination of decency, cunning self-confidence and explosive power.
In my long discovery of what made Canadians and Americans different, despite superficial similarities, I did discover in Ontario something that I still can detect in Canadian life: "a pre-disposition to disapprove". I recall the cold power behind a word I often heard in my 17 years:
"inappropriate". It seems to me that the rigid moralism of old Scots Toronto the Good has not disappeared, but has morphed into the multiculty quasi-pacificist Euroid self-righteousness of post-Trudeaupia. From here, in the heart of the Empire, in the Belly of the Beast, with Tony Soprano vividly imagined not just as "another voice in the global symphony", but as "The Crips and the Bloods Do Sharia" it sounds distant and tinny. Sad. Some of my best friends are still in Canada.
Posted by: EssEm | 2005-01-25 10:03:12 AM
Major General Smedley Butler, USMC 1933 -
"War is just a racket. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism."
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Posted by: DJ | 2005-01-25 2:28:09 PM
With all the talk about Canada punching above its weight, I'd like to say that you would have America's admiration and respect if you would just work at punching at your weight.
(In the US, there are welterweights and middleweights as renowned as heavyweights.)
If Canada sees its role as peacekeepers and prefers to abstain from agressive warfare, then we would say, "Great"! We need proficient peacekeepers. It would lighten our load considerably.
So make your peacekeepers strong enough and trained enough and deployable enough to hit a crisis situation like a freight train, and have the capacity to make opposition forces of chaos and violence say, "Hey, we'd better make nice. The Canadians are here!"
We need you now more than ever.
EssEm, I really appreciate your remarks. I've been trying to understand our Canadian friends for about a year, and every once in a while someone says something that turns a few lights on. Thanks for the comment.
Posted by: Greg outside Dallas | 2005-01-25 5:58:19 PM
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