AndrewL

Really? Define immoral and define for me how homosexuality fits your definition of immoral. Here is the trick, do not mention god once..... Andrew

So you think it is a good idea to imprison two 17 year olds who decide to engage in some anal sex? Andrew

Israel does not occupy Gaza or the West bank??????. Ok, you are obviously not informed enough to have this debate. (some people would debate Gaza, but the truth is israel never relinquished control of the resources and infrastructure). And i still do not see in that paragraph where the destruction of Israel is stated. Andrew

Argus, Yes it is conceivable. My intent was to show how easy the Nazi label can be applied, whether to Israel or Hezbollah. I said clearly the analogy was false in my original post. I guess you are just choosing to ignore that. But in the end we cannot deny that Israel would not exist unless it was expansionist. Just because they do not have the means, contrary to your opinion, to control all of the land they wish to, does not mean the Zionists (not the same as Jews or Israelis) do not want all the 'holy land' for themselves. Again, I already said in my OP that the analogy was false. But hey, good for Israel for developing a nice liberal society. I know the debate in Israel is alot more open and honest than it is in North America. They accommodate only enough to make sure their democracy is Jewish in character. What I said is not nonsense at all. This is the very reason why they refuse the right of return. They know that Arabs outnumber them, and in a democracy the Jewish character would eventually be drowned out. Israel admits as much. They know they have to control immigration to the point of making sure Jews outnumber others. And this really touches on the comparison i made to Nazis. (one that i feel i must repeat, as in my OP, that is false). The Nazis were partly characterized by their insistence on a Aryan character, not unlike the state of Israel that also insists on a Jewish character. See, it is easy to make Nazi comparisons, just like our weak minded neo-conservative MP. What do you think Arabs would do if we told them we were going to move hundreds of thousands of Jews into their land. Oh, and alot of you will have to give up your homes, businesses, and farms. Sorry, tough break. The suicide bomber cult I find equally disgusting as the cruise missile, cluster bomb, collective punishment cult. Maybe even more disgusting, since it only requires a coward to drop a bomb from 30K feet, killing many more innocent people than your average suicide bomber, who actually has to sacrifice himself. I hate suicide bombers, but i dont pretend for a second that it is any worse than the clinical murder practiced by westerners. (speaking of nazi comparisons, which would of course be false). No, not at all. Its only that by any definition of terrorism i can find, Israel, the US, and any other world or regional power, now or in history, practices terrorism quite regularly, and with far deadlier consequences. What definition of terrorism do you use? Morality is not a term i often associate with the western world, or any civilized nation for that matter. We, the global exploiters, are only concerned with consumerism and the harmful and unsustainable use of resources that make it possible. We are more than happy to exploit anybody for this purpose, as long as we do not have to see it up close and personal. We are far from a moral or just society. Everything we do is based on the theft of resources and the displacement of indigenous people. In North America we cannot even teach in our schools that we are responsible for the worst genocide in the history of the world. We gloss over it. Since when is the western world associated with 'morals'. We are some of the worst people to ever walk the earth, and what makes it worse is our complete failure to acknowledge we do anything wrong. You are obviously completely ignorant of these people. Then what are we doing in Afghanistan, if not attempting to win hearts and minds? Ok you are right. Israel kills far more innocent people, and cannot achieve their stated goals. Hezbollah beat them on both counts. How about two, of the thousands. Osama and Mustafa Muamar They were kidnapped by the IDF the day before the Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas. http://www.medialens.org/alerts/06/060630_...d_by_israel.php And you might argue there is evidence they were connected to Hamas. And I would argue there is stronger evidence that Galid Shalit was connected to the IDF. No. I am basing it on a definition of terrorism that the US military has used for years. United States Department of Defense: the "calculated use of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of...m#United_States I am basing it on definitions used by your "wacko friends", not mine. The US dept of defense is my enemy. Im a supporter of any resistance against immoral and illegal occupation. So would you be, if you were honest. And yes, i am human, so there is hate in me. If you were honest, you would admit the same. Not at all. I hate Islamic theocracies. Are you suggesting Canada no longer tolerates dissent. (speaking of Nazi comparisons, which would be false, of course). Andrew

Of course the people of Lebanon are to stupid and corrupt to elect a government that can be supported with international aid. Much better to give it to a foreign sponsored terrorist organization who is responsible to no one. What a condescending, arrogant attitude. Of course every penny will be spent on aid but not a nickel on arms because Hezbollah will submit to an independent audit at the end of the year. Man oh man, what are you on? Though Hezbollah is only one of many groups providing social services in Lebanon, its reputation for delivering those services honestly is unmatched, making it that much harder to circumvent. In nearby Nabatiye, for instance, Mercy Corps has begun working through the Jabbar Foundation, a nonprofit group run by Yaseen Jabbar, a wealthy member of Parliament. But the mayor of Nabatiye, Mustapha Badreddine, 55, says he considers the foundation ineffective. For his own part, Mr. Badreddine says he does not belong to Hezbollah, but that he works with it because it is trustworthy, far more so than any other group in the area. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/world/mi...amp;oref=slogin (signup is free) It is getting to the people. Andrew

I could not find anywhere where their platform of '96 calls for the total destruction of the Israeli state. I know of the 1985 document that does call for the elimination of the zionist entity. But the 96 document is what is published on their websites, not the 85 document. Your inability to read and comprehend simple English renders your arguments nul and void. What that paragraph says to me is that they will continue the resistance until Israel leaves the occupied lands. Occupied strip is reference to the Gaza strip. They also mention to refuse to take seriously the negotiations that would allow Israel to have any control over the palestinians at the expense of the palestinians. What the paragraph implies is that if Israel makes final borders within the legal Israeli state, the resistance will end. So what did i miss? Andrew

Yes. We should certainly care about the hearts and minds. Israelis/jews living in Israel proper are not terrorists, but the actions of their government could certainly be considered terrorism. And the actions of settlers are absolutely terrorism. Im not saying there is no terror perpetrated against jews though. I didnt know living with the lebanese was a requirement for me to criticize Israel. Perhaps if you love the state of Israel so much you should convert to a jew and move to a settlement and steal someone else's land? Ahh yes. And now your partisan hackery comes out. I dont deny that i dislike the Harper neo-conservatives, but please, their faults are just the same old faults of all other politicians before them. My dislike of them has little to do with my label as a 'liberal', whatever the fuck that means in domestic politics anymore. Paul Martin was not someone I respected either. Andrew

Same with the governemnt in aghanistan and iraq. They do not exist without the support of america. Therefore they are not legitimate by your logic. You want to talk about militant proxy forces? How about the KLA terrorists in kosovo who were our friends?, or all the torturous murderers the west has supported in latin america? How about the islamic 'freedom fighters' in Afghanistan? Ohh i get it, its bad when its them, but its good when it us..... I dont accept that. Because the lebanese government does not have the ability to be as effective with the aid money. Hezbollah has pretty much cornered this market. I guarantee if this money was filtered through a modern bureacracy most of it would be used for bribes, hookers, and other typical politician like activities. Andrew

For starters there is a huge difference between legitimate criticism of Israel for excessive use of force and misguided policies regarding collective punishment and the hate mongering rant that you posted. Please point out the hate mongering? I fully disclosed in my post that i dont like comparisons to Nazis, jews or Hezbollah. I was just showing how easy it is to make the same nazi comparisons to jews as it is for Hezbollah. I have seen no evidence that Hezbollah refuses to acknowledge this. I already pointed out the difference between Zionist entity and Jewish/Israeli state. Why do you ignore that? It is debatable as to whether or not Hezbollah is currently callig for the complete destruction of Israel. There is a difference between Zionist and Jew that people in the west refuse to acknowledge, and it does not help that our newspapers conveniently translate zionist entity as Israeli state. That is false. (It is like considering all americans to be neo-conservatives) Here is some what Hezbollah has published as their electoral progarm in '96 in reference to zionist and Israel. We will work on the strong and efficient continuation of the Resistance until our occupied land is completely liberated and restored to the national sovereignty, until our people in the occupied strip are released and able to secure a free honorable decent living away from any direct or indirect presence of the usurping Zionists. We will also work on confronting the logic of the theatrical negotiations that seek to establish Israel's position at the expense of the people of the land. The state's role in the economical operation must be based on a delicate harmonization between the necessity of activating the public sector, prosperity of its movement and investments, on one hand, and the necessity of not deserting the state's responsibilities towards the citizens and the public utilities, especially what concerns supporting the steadfastness of the areas confronting the Zionist occupation. - To work on cementing the Lebanese stand in the face of the American pressure policies which are being practiced against Lebanon politically and economically, to reject the continuous American interference in its internal affairs and to deal with the American policy on the grounds of its being identical to and supportive for the positions of the Israeli enemy that occupies our land, kills our children and targets our villages with its incessant daily aggressions. http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/320/3...h-platform.html I could not find anywhere where their platform of '96 calls for the total destruction of the Israeli state. I know of the 1985 document that does call for the elimination of the zionist entity. But the 96 document is what is published on their websites, not the 85 document. When you repeat such things as 'Hezbollah calls for the destruction of the israeli state', you are obviously just repeating misinformation offered by very dishonest and lazy people in the governemnt and the mainstream media. As long as israel continues to build settlements she is expanding the borders of her state (zionism), if the world community will not use force against Israel to stop this, i cannot fault actors in the ME from attacking Israel, (using the same tactics of collective punishment that Israel uses). Resistance to Israeli kidnappings and assasinations, and the occupation of the Shebaa Frams, Golan Heights, Gaza, and West Bank, is entirely legitimate. Andrew

Great argument. What didnt you like, was there some factual errors or something? Oh I know, it chellenged too directly your western conditioning to believe everything the government tells you, as if they are honest or honorable people. Or perhaps you just feel that Israel can do no wrong, they are above criticism? what is it... or are you indeed happy with your role as ingnorant country bumpkin? Andrew

Im from alberta, directly benefit from the destruction of the landbase and the pollution of the planet, (who doesn't besides ingigeneous pesoples) and I fully support Ignatieff on this issue. Although he probably wont do enough to stop the destruction of my land. How is this anti-alberta? I could just as easily say alberta is against the protection of a viable ecosystem, which would be true. Andrew

Well, Israel can be compared more directly to the Nazis. (It would still be false, but it actually makes more sense). Israel is an expansionist state, like Nazi germany. It displaces people in order to creeate room for a state that must be Jewish in Character. This is comparable to the nazi idea of a pure aryan race that could not accomodate competing races. Jews, likewise, cannot accomodate competing religions for fear of losing their jewish character, this is why they will not allow refugees the legal right of return, and insist on religious colonialists from the west emigrating to illegal Jewish settlements on stolen land. Jews are not Nazis, but they fit the definition more aptly than does Hezbollah. Kenny's comments are dishonest, and typical of low-brow uneducated conservatism. Hezbollah is no more a terrorist organization than Israel. And regardless of what westerners beleive, the perception of the people in the ME is that Hezbollah is a resistance movement that is responsible for ending the Israeli occupation of lebanon. All Canada is doing by saying these things is alienating the common arab, and cheapening the horror of the holocaust. Im surprised the Jewish lobby groups are not angry at the abuse of the language, and the cheapening of their own suffering. These are not smart comments to make. Hezbollahs tactics are not in anyway disimilar to that of Israel. Israel kidnaps civilians and puts them in torture prisons without any trial, never to be heard from again. Hezbollah merely captures soldiers. Israel kills civilians and destroys their homes and businesses in order to punish them for supporting Hezbollah, Hezbollah launches rockets against Israeli civilians in order to punish them for supporting zionism, illegal settlements, and the occupation of stolen lands. (i dont like either strategy, but i cannot put Israel on a pedestal of any great moral superiority, they behave identical to the most common definitions of terrorism, as do most powerful governments, the US being the #1 terrorist state in existence based on common definitions of what terrorism is). There is absolutely no comparison of Hezbollah to the Nazis. Hezbollah calls for the elimination of the zionist entity, (contrary to popular western stupidity, the terms Zionist entity and Israeli state are not synonymous). Zionist entity refers to the idea, in the mind of many arabs, that the Israeli state has a goal of expanding the borders of israel by increased settlement activity and by refusing to allow for the creation of a palestinian state. (regardless of pathetic israeli platitudes in support of a two state solution). Given this conception of Zionism, (i.e. zionist entity does not equal israeli state, zionist does not equal jew) I also support the elimination of the 'zionist entity' in so far as it is an aggressive and violent force bent on expansion, based on religion. This is no different than me calling for the elimination of al-qaeda, which is likewise bent on islamic expansion through violence and terror. I knew when the conservatives took power in Canada I would have to be subjected to these asinine statements from ignorant rural bumpkins of the conservative base. Whats even worse is one day we have Bush calling them islamo-fascists (obvious nazi reference) and a few days later the canucks are making the nazi comparison as well. Im sure they are in cahoots on this nonsense. It is shocking to me that intellectually challenged canadians might latch on to this and actually go forth believing we are in an epic battle against nazis. Politicians just use these terms to gain political capital, and if they can paint the image that we are fighting nazis im sure the typical National Post readership will believe it. This is sad. I used to love this country, but as every day goes by i lose more and more respect for Canadas position in the world. Andrew

Lorne Gunter is really rather simple minded.... All of Britains terror problems come from Pakistan. Does anybody really believe that Britains colonialist past has nothing at all to do with why she is a target? Nothing at all??? Can anybody not understand that all religions lead to hatred and violence. But to keep it in perspective, we are still talking about a few thousand muslims out of over a billion world wide. Take this story for instance: Indonesian authorities have postponed the execution of three Catholics found guilty of the sectarian murder of 200 Muslims following an intervention from the Pope. Christians organize the massacre of muslims Yes. Shocking isnt it. Christians organized a terrorist attack that killed 200 muslims. Can you believe it, those peace loving christians with blood on their hands. Gimme a break... How does Gunter explain the massive ethnic cleansing by Christians against Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. Has he never heard of Srebrenica? How does he explain the annual orgy of violence between Protestants and Catholics every year in the UK? How does he explain the Christian terrorism in India? How does he explain the Christian terrorism in Africa? How does he explain the Jewish terrorist groups Irgun and Lehi? How does he explain state capitalist secualr terrorism, otherwise reffered to as collateral damage? What Gunter fails to realize is that terrorism/violence/murder is only facilitated by religion (every religion except perhaps Budhisms and its offshoots), it makes it easier to commit violence and murder if somebody is stupid enough to believe that god actually exists and is offering rewards and punishments to hairless talking apes on planet earth. The reality is that colonialism, unfair free trade, the ever present battle for resources, narrow minded self interested economic policies, proxy miliatries created by state actors (including the US) and foreign military occupations are the true causes of terrorism. Religion only makes it easier, but it is not a primary cause. To think that is to be as dumb as David Frum and Lorne Gunter and the rest of the Canadian neo-conservative crowd and their shallow minds. Andrew

Martin Luther, Malcom X and many others paid the price in their own blood. Sometimes it does not take the blood of your oppressor to win your own freedom, but often it does take the spilling of your own blood. But the point about MLK is that he rallied people and made change using words, civil disobedience, and law. He was assasinated because he was succesful at non-violence. note: i do realize that non-violence is not always possible. Ever read the story of George Elser? He was 'that close' to blowing up Hitler, a few minutes and history would have been different, for the better. I dont think Hitler could ever have been persuaded, only killed. Andrew

The civil rights movement in the US caused a lot of blood to be spilled. I think you are missing the point. The civil war was in large part due to slavery, and the notion of freedom for slaves. And yes, alot of blood was spilled. But tragically, black people moved out of slacery into second class citizenship, lynchings, mobs, and extreme racism. Yes lots of blood there as well, on the part of the white people. But actual change for the better, real positive change, came with non-violent civil disobedience backed by a large network of support groups and like-minded people, not through violence. Violence in the ME is not going to solve anything, on either side. In fact its even worse for israel, at least with Hezbollah we know violence is part of their creed, but with Israel they lose alot more respect and alot more integrity with every bomb they drop, and over 30 days they achieved worse than nothing, they are now ina more precarious situation. Andrew

Only blood brings freedom? What about Martin Luther King, and Martin Luther before him? What about Rosa Parks? Andrew

Unfortunately it does not matter. Its not going to change the american desire for hegemony. Its not going to reduce their military spending. Its not going to make those creepy evangelicals go away. Its not going to solve anything, except be a gongshow for the media to focus on for a few months. Andrew

Yes it is true that Hezbollah has been tring to goad Israel into a conflict for many months now, and they finally succeeded. But to jump from their to your gleeful 'screw 'em' at the death of innocent children just shows your ignorance of the situation. Hezbollah has both a military and a social wing. This means that Hezbollah has been providing medical, dental, and other services we take for granted to the lebanese and they have come to rely on it. If you are a parent and you care about the health of your child you are going to take advantage of these services, what parent would not? So when you talk about the Israelis dishing out collective punishment to these people all israel is doing is punishing them for the awful crime of taking advantage of much needed social services. Perhaps it is unfortuante that these services are offered by Hezbollah but what does a parent do? Yes they are suffering the consequences as Israel murders children and parents of people who are guilty of nothing more awful than any of us who support the arms industry just by watching NBC or buying a lightbulb made by GE. And Israel will also suffer the consequences of this as hezbollah will now refuse any cease fire that does not see Israel give up the golan heights, something that Israel will not do. And now we are left with a broken lebanon that is not good for anybody, another generation of traumatized civilians who will be radicalized against Israel, and another generation of Israeli children who will have been taught to hate the arabs. This is really all that Israel or Hezbollah will accomplish in the near future, it is just sad that Israel finally caved into exactly what Hezbollah and Iran want. Its the same old story. And it will solve nothing. Andrew

Nonsense. The foreign policy of violently introducing elections into nations is bogus. Iraq and Afghanistan both prove that quite conclusively. In fact, the idea of pushing democracy as if it is the end all be all is just silly, democracy itself is nether good nor bad, it just gives people a way to partially shape policy (or just have the illusion that they are). In the ME we are dealing with highly religious people, most who are completely disillusioned by american heavy handedness and one sided economic policies. This means they will vote against america when they are given the chance, and they will vote for fundamentalism. What is good from a security perspective for western nations is a nice tolerant people who subscribe to classical western liberalism. Democracy is functional only when people are tolerant of each other, just relying on democracy to produce sane, peaceful, and calm people is just stupid. If anything it only gives legitamacy to their intolerance, as people in this region evidently tend to vote for backwards religious half-wits. If Bush had a policy of introducing classical liberalism to these people it would still fail but at least he would make some sense. The entire idea of saving people by blowing them up and killing their children is really only for the extremely dumb. Violence should only be reserved strictly for self-defense, not nation building and in some childish pursuit of hegemony. What Bush has done amounts to nothing other than state inflicted terror, and to fight a War on Terror by using terror is fully discredited, and always has been among serious people, save for the national post and fox news. Bush's policy of violence in pursuit of peace against nations that are not a threat, and moreso against the people of those nations that have never been a threat, is just not working and most sane people recognized that before it even started. No its not. Politicians always play to their base. Bush does it by pandering to hard-core religious evangelicals who can hardly wait for Israel to usher in the end times or put an end to all science, either through banning it outright or abusing it through brainwashing ones children with the teaching of creationism and demonizing of Darwin. Harper does it through appealing to the conservative base in Alberta who want nothing more than extremely close economic and political ties to the US regardless of the consequeces. Be it environmental destruction or going off on the war path. This is just pandering all the same and it is exactly what Harper is doing. Sure he might lose some mainstream votes, if people in the mainstream even care or bother to vote, but he cannot afford to alienate his base. This is common and expected of politicians, the dastardly sycophants that they are. I want them to do it. I am sick of being constantly dissapointed. All you are saying is Harper sucks because we suck. If what you say is true than we should not bother with things like the G8, NATO, or the UN at all, we should immediately cease any foreign policy work, completely disband the military, and put those dollars to better use here at home. No because Israel in her present form only exists through the violation of international law and Canada should be pressing for Israel to first honor her obligations as a nation beholden to international law and norms before she resorts to completely insane and cruel state terror that will never lead to any security in the region. Sure we can admonish and condemn Hezbollah and Hamas all we want, and we should, but we also have to demand that Israel abide by international law and should first compromise on all the outstanding issues to do with palestinian statehood, something they have never done seriously. Only then can Israel says she has tried every diplomatic path and has tried to avoid war. By standing beside Israel at this time we are affirming that international law is unimportant and we need not abide by it. This makes Harper party to a crime, at the same time he is just cheaply pandering to his base. It did not work when it failed to stop Israel from overrunning the people who were already there and from being displaced from their land and livelihood. We wouldnt be in this pickle now if Israel was not allowed to use violence and terror to create a state in the first place where there were already people subsisting on the land. Fine. Israel exists now, just as Canada is allowed to exist on stolen lands, but the people whom they displaced illegally have a right to resist it. If you support Israels right to exist through violece why would you not support the palestinian right to exist through violence? That is really what it comes down to and why groups like Hezbollah and Hamas exist in the first place. Israel has their patron in the US, and palestinians have their patrons in Iran and Syria. Its not Canadas business to interfere in this, it is only our duty to promote a diplomatic solution to this crisis. Canada was an important part of the Kyoto agreement, Mulroney is often credited with convincing Bush Sr. of going the route of the UN and building a real coalition in the first gulf war. Pearson was very progressive in his ideas for international peace-keeping. Canada played a huge role in WWII. Canada used to have a role. If harpers statements lately are any inclination of his future policy, we might as well not even have one, we can just sit back and watch america decide how the world is to be. It is if you dont want to deal with americas tit-for-tat policy decisions against us in trade and commerce Is their not a higher international principle than cronyism and profit regardless of the consequences? We could commit ourselves to the principles of international law, we could recognize that the massacre of civilians of another country, when those civilians are not engaged in any violence against your nation, is not in the interests of peace, and that history has shown us that this only creates more violence and terror. If by commiting ourselves to something you mean the wholesale destruction of lebanon? well we have not commited ourselves to that at all, we have just refused to condemn it, which makes us part of the problem in the ME not part of any real solution. Andrew

That Martin sent in. I don't agree with them being there either, but it was Martin who started it and the house voted to keep them there. I say, we should keep them there for this term only and bring them back. I think it was typical vote pandering that got them there anway. I was amazed the morning I heard them announce that they were sending troops into Afganistan. I'm like 'Martin is the most sinlge retarted person beside Trudeau and Crientien. All politicians are pretty low on the list of people i have any respect for. But I will say that Martin originally sent them in because there was originally a mission to get rid of AQ. That has been done, now we should leave. A western nation occupying an islamic nation is about the stupidest thing a nation can do. Andrew

You sound like one of those conspiracy bums that sit out on the street corner. How can we 'occupy' a nation that is begging us to stay through a democratically elected government of the people? You are a selfish person if you believe that your so far above everyone else in the world that you just don't give a damn. It's people like that that have got us into the mess to being with, allowing poverty to flourish under totalitarian regimes. Free the people and their market and they will prosper. So what you are saying is you support hardcore islamic regimes? Of course i give a damn, that is precisely why i do not want my tax money going to prop up yet another theocracy in that region. Free the people? That is ridiculous. The people will do what they want, all we are doing is protecting a government who enjoy some support in the capital. Many afghanis are calling for a return to the stability of the taliban.... and these are the type of religious fanatics that will control afghanistan whether Canada is there or not. We cannot change that. In fact we are helping to promote it. The only desirable type of government on the planet is one that is secular and liberal. Those should be the only governments that we should support. Andrew

Bush's policies have been mostly discredited, you yourself admit to feeling that way, and yet Harper shows up affirming them. Harper does not agree with Bush out of principle, he agrees with Bush out of a desire to further whatever domestic interesst he feels he needs to pursue. This is about his selfish interest to improve relations with Bush, when it should be about condemning the violence in the ME. Men of principle, yeah, right. So what, I want my PM to take the lead on these things, even if it is ignored. What Japan and India refuse to do is their problem. Regardless if it is effective, he should be calling for an immediate end to the collective punishment (on both sides) that will only make matters worse down the road. Its not as if affirming the american position is really that useful either. Or do you believe in the fantasy that military force has ever worked in this region in regards to these issues? Canada has a long history of engaging the UN and working with others to find ways of dealing with these issues. The UN is of course consistently ignored on this particualr issue, but that does not mean we should stop trying. Its not like mimicking Bush is really going to lead anywhere. Leadership is not taking the easy position and refusing to stand up to an obvious injustice. Leadership would be sticking to the principles of neutrality in the ME region so as to continue to promote what will hopefully be a diplomatic solution to this crisis. If we fall into the trap of thinking that the only way to solve this is by promoting collective punishment against entirely innocent people we have just become indistinguishable from our neighbors, and that is a bad thing, since as i mentioned at the start, those policies were long ago discredited, and have become an embaressment to most americans. Again Harper is just trying to curry favor in a desperate bid to improve relations so he can be seen as a hero domestically and win a majority government. He does not care about the Lebanese or the Israelis, he is just being duplicitous. Forgive me if i had hope that Harper might reaffirm the Canadian values and position in international relations that was lost over the last generation, even if i did not vote for him. The last few days have shown only that Harper is concerned about nothing but our economic relationship to the US and he refuses to stand for anything on the international scene that Canada was once known for. Andrew

I was totally joking. Sorry, sometimes with the written word its hard to tell. Cheers, Andrew

Yes, especially now that they have lowered themselves to the level of reality TV broadcasting. What a disgrace. Of course I bet the more the CBC produces 'programming for the stupid' the less conservatives would complain about it. Speaking of taxes, i wish i didnt have to fund an army tasked to protect a buch of islamic religious wackos in Afghanistan. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news...23-e841f10322a4Why should my taxes go to fund these people? Fuck em' Id rather fund the CBC. Andrew Keep in mind that it was Martin's gov't that sent them in. Everyone conveniently forgets that. Granted. And originally there was a proper casus belli, and a legal obligation as an ally, to remove AQ from Afghanistan. Harpers government reaffirmed the mission, and now we are just occupying that nation and not really promoting secular or liberal values. Democracy only goes so far, it takes liberalism (classical western liberalism, not the narrow liberal VS conservative liberalism of domestic politics) and secularism to make a nation free. All we have now is a few Canadian soldiers getting killed, and a waste of my taxes, helping to promote a backwards religious government that has no interest in freedom. And that means we need to get the hell out, pronto. Andrew

You would still have to deal with the rest of the Liberal media. You can ask the Conservatives to end protection of the media industry in Canada and let American companies buy TV, radio and newspapers. Then, Canadian television and radio and newspapers could be affilates of U.S. companies like FOX. Then news would be fair and balanced. Are you serious, or are you actually that ignorant? Andrew