Charlie

Not that US has achieved anything. Assad is still there. Probably a few of his soldiers died. It would be much more impactful if there was a global consensus to take action against Assad. US, acting as a hegemon and taking actions single handedly, just sends the wrong message to rest of the world.

You know that Assad is a secular dictator who has nothing to do with terrorists. Terrorists from Al Qaida, ISIS are supported by Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia is a strong US ally. Middle East is confusing place. Don't ever believe your leaders to give a truthful answer. If you want to support job creation in military and arms industries by starting unjust wars, then that's a totally different story. Don't bring ethics, human rights and good vs. bad in the picture.

OTOH = On the other hand... Defining bad actors isn't the job of Americans. Bad is a relative term and Americans, Chinese and Russians have varying opinion on the definition. If you are going to allow every powerful country to take action against the bad actors according to their definition, there will be many unjust wars. It would be better to go through UN in order to have a consensus against a bad actor and a mutual agreement should be reached before taking unilateral actions.

You know that US is no more the lone super power. Right? Not that China or Russia are great alternatives, it's probably better to have options for weaker countries to choose their poison. OTOH, allied or westerners, whatever you call them, need to get over their privilege. They don't run the world anymore.

If Iraq having WMDs justifies war on Iraq by Americans, would US having WMDs (nuclear bombs) justify war by other countries on the US? We have examples when US has even used chemical and nuclear weapons on other countries. Actually, US is the only country that has used nuclear weapons on other countries. Do Americans feel any shame for their acts or only that Trump's conscience wakes up only when he sees Assad killing a few children? Any idea, how many children have died because of US invasions around the world.

US has no right to attack Iraq or Syria. Why does US even try to act as if she has an exclusivity of defining humanity or responsibility to save the world. What they have done in Vietnam or Hiroshima (just two examples of many), I would say our world would be a much better place if US abstains from intervening in other countries' affairs. In that sense, I like Trump's America First approach. Only that he is doing exactly opposite of that by attacking Syria.

UN peace keeping missions don't require significant GDP investments. In most cases, it requires less than a few hundred soldiers. NATO, on the other hand, is a more politically driven organization e.g. dealing with Russia & China, increasing sphere of influence in Europe and Asia etc.

Betsy, Muslims say the same about verses in Quran. Muslim Brotherhood and Ummah takes precedence over humanity. It's about "us believers" vs "them". Exactly in line with what you claim about Bible We probably don't need religion. It only creates divide.

Canada is a peaceful country. It really doesn't have any major enemies. Why would we spend money to pay for American imperialist ambitions. Are we willing to sacrifice our social security and healthcare and spend our tax dollars on useless wars?

Congratulations. Last few posts represent the moments of your life when you were closest to science, logic and reasoning. Now ignore me and continue your Erdogan praising with your doner kebab friends..

Exactly. I was born in Pakistan. We had a dictator like Erdogan in 80s. The dictator islamized our country, brainwashed our new generation by introducing misleading Jihadi literature in school curricula, created Jihadis in order for them to fight Russia. (US was okay with the radicalization as Russia was a more immediate threat and Jihadi interest was aligned with the US interest of defeating Russians). In short, 30 years later, we have a whole generation completely brainwashed. Very religious. Extremists who participated in Jihad in Afghanistan are creating chaos in Pakistan now, suicide bombing has been part of daily lives since last 15 years. Islamization is a slippery slope. Very difficult to undo once you start it. I hope, Turkey gets rid of Erdogan before severe damage is done. Growing up, liberals in Pakistan used to give examples of Ataturk on how he made Turkey a modern and progressive country. What a shame that Erdogan is destroying all of it.

This is funny. I am a scientist, and I moved to Canada because Canada needed my skills and Canadian employer offered me more money than anywhere else. You can call it selfishness on my part. But it has nothing to do with the West stealing scientists. People have freedom to choose. And their decision might be driven by many factors other than nationality, race, religion etc.

I don't think refusal rate of Canadians is an issue here. These numbers aren't relevant. I would be more interested in seeing 1. Refusal rates of non-white people entering the US: Racism Index 2. Refusal rates of muslims entering the US: Islamophobia Index

Jihad in an Arabic word. Obviously you won't find it in books written in Hebrew and translated in English. But the essence of "fighting in the name of God" is the same. What reason has God to kill every living being in a certain city or tribe? When barbarians from Mongolia used to conquer their enemy cities, they would create mountain of human skulls and enslave the women for trade, in the name of blue skies and unseen Gods. Muhammad killed a whole Jewish tribe in the name of God's word when the tribe violated a peace treaty. Crusaders claimed their wars were inspired by the word of God. It seems like rulers have been using God's name to empower themselves for centuries now.

Yes. Agreed. Others have rewritten or reinterpreted their books to align with the new world. Muslims haven't yet.

Don't you think the technology of building walls is a few thousand years old? Walls are useful, when armies with bows and arrows would attack a city. Then someone invented large cannons and spies. Walls became obsolete. Today, we don't need walls. We need firewalls. To save us from Russian hackers who hack our elections and spread false news to influence the outcome of elections

Haha... Btw, the website that you quoted from belongs to Ahmeddiya community. In most of the Muslim world, they are considered infidels. They are thrown in jails for blasphemy, they aren't allowed to read Quran or greet using Islamic words. A lot of them ran away from their countries to take refuge in the West. Canada has a healthy population of these people.

Betsy, a quiz: which holy book do these quotes come from? The military conquest of the land of Canaan by the Hebrews in about 1200 B.C.E. is often characterized as "genocide" and has all but become emblematic of biblical violence and intolerance. God told Moses: I don't want to score any cheap points against a religion or book here. But being students of history, we should be honest with ourselves. And the truth is all Abrahamic faiths were quite violent.

Smart for his own good.

Altai, I live in GTA. It is a melting pot of culture and races. (A few people like taxme want to make Toronto white again, but that's another story) In my town, last Ramadan, local govt representatives (mainly Christians) fasted along with Muslim community. And all the money they saved on lunches, they donated to a charity. On Eid, they wore traditional Islamic dresses and attended Namaz with the Muslim community. Also, during Christmas, many Muslims decorate their homes and become part of festivities. Point is: Canada is a beautiful country with a lot of diversity and tolerance. Some people might have extreme opinions built upon certain biases and bad life experiences. But overall, Canada is one of the best places to live in the world.

Gitmo ? Not that Canadian government hasn't tried it before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr

I am not sure if you know it or not, but Quran is mainly inspired from Bible and Torah. Muhammad and his tribe were followers of Abrahamic faith. Most of the stories in Quran are borrowed from the stories of other Abrahamic religions. Abraham, Ismail, Jesus are all prophets of Islam. Problem is that Islam is still stuck in its dark ages. West modified its religious books, opened to the new interpretations of its teaches and separated religion from the state. Muslims are still struggling through the phase where Popes had the divine powers, gays were sinners and witch-hunting was noble. Give it a couple of hundred years. Everything would be fine.

You are right. I don't think that the West needs to help Africa because westerners raped and plundered Africans in the past. I OTOH, we need to help Africa as fellow human beings. Nothing wrong sending a few dollars to African kids dying of hunger while we are wasting thousands on useless iPhones, Flatscreen TVs and expensive cars. Only thing I would like to change is to make sure that the money gets spent properly.

Ripping Quran apart is just symbolic, and actually a harmless way of showing anger. (I come from a much more violent place). So, it's really not a big deal. It just shows the primitive mentality of the people engaged in this act. On the same note, suggesting to detain and rehabilitate people for attacking a few pieces of paper sounds kind of extreme.

What do you guys think about a Canadian who was born and bred in Canada. Should we deport him too?