Jerry J. Fortin

The Lebanese aren't at war. Are you sure about that?

Excellent post !

You meant to say moral to you right? I mean look at booze and all of the problems with it. How about gambling? Smokes and the tobacco industry? What about the environmental impact of gold mining? Oil production? Where is the line? Morals cannot be regulated by law, they can only be instilled through personal belief. Those beliefs are subject to education and family environment asnd personal experience. So while it is possible to legislate, it is not possible to creat morality through legislation. Society can create laws but the public will determine whether or not they choose to obey those laws. How many people fool around on the spouses? Infidelity it technically illegal, but when was the last time someone went to jail for it? Even when laws are made they are not always enforced. Governments should legislate for the benefit of society as a whole. When the government begins to legislate the behavior of citizens we begin to lose of freedom. Granted that causing harm to another citizen is cause for society to act, but outside of that parameter society as a whole has no business creating guidelines for behavior. Morals are largely a construction of religious dogma. As such they are very rigid and secular. In todays democracy and multicultural society the lines of morality become blurred and legislators are challenged to strike a balance. Unfortunately for citizens the easy way out is to legislate morality which serves the political purpose of dividing society into the very lines they wish to remove in multiculturalism. The time has come to understand that in fact things are far more complicated than our antiquated political system is capable of dealing with. Society has changed over the years with advances in education and communications. We have evolved beyond the restrictive confines of the current political system. Economic models are revised almost daily to incorporate the advances within our consumer society. Time marchs on oblivious to the morals of society, situations change. The entire question of morality is divisive in nature and counter productive in a political sense. We need to revise our terminology somewhat and choose to use the word ethical instead of moral. At least then the government can address the root cause of the problem which is situational ethics.

Well August what can I say. I am well aware of the fallacy of INVESTING in the military industrial complex. There are however several practical realities to factor into the equation. First of all the simple fact of the state of our military and current global conditions. Secondly the current direction of our government with respect to its position on undertaking a program to begin to re-equip our military. It has been announced that we will spend 15 billion dollars over the next ten years, which is not a huge expenditure in military equipment but it still taps the tax payer for 1.5 billion a year. Now where is that money going? How much will be spent here in Canada and how much will head south to the American military industrial complex? Canada currently manufactures very little military equipment. Ship building we do, aircraft building we don't. Lots of money is going south and we get zero benefit from the expenditure. Now turn things around, buy the stuff we need here and the tax payer then employs Canadians and claws back at least some of that expenditure in taxes. Now think of the impact of becoming a full partner in continental defense. The reality is that there would have to be a massive expenditure of capital to upgrade continental defense. Canada would have to cover a lot of the cost of that effort but under the right conditions we may be able to recoup some of that expense through a Canadian content clause. It boils down into a simple question of what is it that Canada wants to do? Defense is not cheap but the costs can be mitigated with or without benefits to citizens.

I just don't get some people. Lets turn the tables around here. If Israel crossed the border and kidnapped two combatants and killed four others, then began a campaign of rocket attacks against the citizens of that nation would you say that Israel was innocent?

Change the drug laws. Legalize weed, its a natural substance not man made, push the rest of the dope into capital crimes turf. Life sentences for chemical manufacture, importation and distribution of non-legal recreational drugs and the hobby and harm will go away. Druggies will stick to weed.

Dude it doesn't matter. Aberta is on the right track in economic terms and the rest of the nation is rotting in the sidings. They are jealous and desperate, poor and angry. The real villian here is the feds for cutting the funding they give to the provinces. That has caused them to raise their taxes to make up the revenue shortfalls. Cut a fed tax and eat a provincial one that is the fed answer. The rest of Canada wants a piece of the Alberta pie and the welfare state will give them what they want or there will be a new administration installed to do it.

There is another thing that is certain. Those human beings would not have lost their lives had it not been for the terrorists that started this thing in the first place. Were the Islraeli's reponsible, in a word yes. But can they be blamed for these deaths, no. Call it whatever you want, friendly fire or human error it makes no difference there are casualties of war. If it were not for war they would have lived. Who started the war, they are too blame...........

With a little luck this will be resolved with the removal of Hezbollah. However that little task will not happen quickly or without great loss of human life.

Possible yes, likely no. More likely is simple human error.

Kill Hezbollah, but you have no right to 'punish' those not involved. Hezbollah had 10% popular support, even fewer members. So what should Israel do? Just roll over and spread their cheeks? I think not. An international border was crossed by members of an armed group of terrorists. They kidnapped and killed and returned to their own nation. Their government did nothing about this. They now daiy launch rockets accross that same border and their government still does nothing about this. There two groups at fault, the terrorists and the government that lets them operate in that nation. Lets get real here for a minute. Governments have responsibility. I agree that innocent people are being killed on both sides of the border, but that simply can't be helped until the terrorists are removed. What do you think Israel should do?

There is a really good book to read, I think it was called Blue on Blue. Friendly fire has always been an issue in modern war. Things are being reacted to very quickly in modern warfare and sometimes inaccurate inteligence is at fault, sometimes its just human error. The point is that shit happens in war. People die.

Command and control is an issue. Unless of course Canada gets some balls and does something smart. North American Defense is in our own best interest. That is a given, but the real question is how to integrate an operational plan to provide for the defense of both Canada and the United States. Considering that we here in Canada are not capable of defending our northern territory, we must make some decisions rather quickly in my view. Either we spend the necessary funds to get the job done ourselves or we look at the option of becoming a partner in a multinational strategy to get the job done. Either way you look at it the responsibility to defend this nation rests with our government. By doing nothing they are failing in their responsibilities. Having said all of this, there are a number of distinct advantages in becoming a partner in continental defense. For one, we could stipulate that we share in the productive efforts of providing infrastructure on Canadian soil. By this I mean providing the military hardware for the bases of operations. To do this we could get some license agreements to produce the armament necessary. This means industrial development and employment. Although it does mean participating in the military industrial complex we could at least do so with open eyes and setup some political firewalls to help us out with the problems that will be encountered. I could see any command and control issues being put to rest as a trade off for economic benefit.

What they have done so far is defend their nation and its citizens. Its no skin off my back one way or the other what those folks do over there, I can't do anything about it. It looks like the world's politicians will allow the currrent situation to continue for the time being. No cease fire is expected because there is no way to get the freaking terrorists to cease their attacks. It takes two to tango, and people are dropping dead all over the place in both countries with no hope in sight for any of the innocent citizens of either counttry. So Kindred, where do you stand now. A cease fire won't happen because of the terrorists decision not to cease fire, is it still Israels fault?

Chavez has the balls to stand up to anyone who he believes is in opposition to either his or his governments best interests and views. Isn't that what we all want? While he is known to have issues with US economic influence in his country, the citizens have benefited from his presidency. Look at some of the stats from 1970-1998 the per capita income in Venezuela fell by 35 percent. Since then it has gone up and from 2004-2006 it rose by some 27%. The guy has a 77% approval rating in that country. Poverty rates have fallen to a little less than 39% from a little over 55%. With these things mind, I have to say that he has and is being good for his country.

So you are suggesting that Israel attacked with malice and forethought to destroy a UN post. That would be a little foolish don't you think?

Well Rue I admire your well thought position. I must ask you what you think our government should do with respect to this current middle east problem? I for one beieve that we should refrain from taking sides at all because it is none of our business, and I think we should limit ourselves to humanitarian efforts and only that when hostilities end. Of course I have no problem with delivering and providing emergency medical aid and food to an offshore position as a nuetral country, but the main point should be our nuetrality.

Slice it up any way you want it, but the bottom line is that only a fool would sit back and ignore kidnappings of their citizens and rocket attacks into their country. The nation that hides them will suffer. Want to end the situation and stop the senseless death and suffering then hand over the soldiers and disarm Hezbollah, simple. Want a political solution, then wait and watch your citizens die because you are to cowardly to make a freaking decision that would save their lives. All of the sympathizers of Lebanon can go there and protest their brains and guts out. Go ahead and show your support for them in Lebanon, make a political point and show some guts for the cowards that hide terrorists inside innocent residential areas. This needs to be said, brutal as it may seem but this is not our fight. Don't bring the insanity to this country as well and try to get our political leadership involved in a war without an end, because that is what the middle east is. No human will ever solve the problems because to do so will have one side or the other removed from the area, genocide. Only a fool would want that. Only a fool would want to involve themselves in a domestic dispute. Which is what this is on a very large scale. There is no global police and even if there were, they couldn't prevent a single terrorist attack on a single bus stop let alone an entire nation. The only solution is the goodwill of citizens and trust in humanity. Until one entire side is willing to unilaterally refuse to participate it will not stop. It won't stop.

Good move in military terms. Bad move for sovereignty. With the right political leadership this could strengthen our position, however this means we will need to have some real balls at the table. Under the terms of this agreement we lose command and control of our own forces.

Eliminate all witholding taxes. Replace revenue stream with fair rate transaction tax. Both sides of the transaction to pay 10%. No tax returns and no refunds. Administered in the same manner as GST. New tax rate 17% total, no sliding scale or graduated rates. Tax exemption for all citizens below predetermined (poverty) level. Complete elimination of Revenue Canada bureaucacy. Tax lawyers become redundant. All business reduces administrative cost of taxation concerns. Citizen retain earned income, disposable family income increases. Family investment planning creates development capital for new business ventures. Where is the downside???

Best choice would be to simply double up. Never less than a pair of officers. Backup called for every incident with convicted felons. All domestic disputes responded to with multiple officers.

I think the man has big brass ones!! He is looking after his people, don't ever think otherwise. That is why he is there. Personally I would go with the F22, nice bird with good legs.

I think I am going to buy some oil futures tomorrow at that price!

There is also such a thing as a tax revolt.

Look Kindred everybody agrees that what is happening is horrific. The problem is that the terrorists are hidding amongst innocent people to cover their pathetic tails. You keep stating that this is not how to fight these terrorists, but you never state how to fight them. If you have the answer to that question then pony up with it and save some lives. After reading the interview with the boss in Lebanon I no longer have any question as to whether or not the government their has any connection with Hezbollah. They are peas in a pod, the man actually admires the efforts of these terrorists and allows them to operate as they see fit. So the government is at least guilty of being dumb enough to associate with terrorists. Worse yet they support these so called humans in their efforts at the political level if nothing else. The fools have taunted and terrorised Israel for the last time, and the Israelis will have no more of it. Had the government complied with UN 1559 this situation would not have occured. Had the government distanced themselves with Hezbollah tyhis would not have happened. But sadly these things have happened and the government of Lebanon must accept responsibility for its actions. While I would not offer support to either side in this conflict I do think that we can play a role in the aftermath in a humanitarian capacity to either side or even both if necissary. This is not our business, it is theirs. We all have to live with our decisions, unfortunately some will die for theirs but not by our hand. Israel is acting in a manner that defends the interests of their citizens, I can only hope that other nations do the same.