jdobbin

This is probaly why the talk of an international force broke down in discussions. Israel and Hezbollah and Lebanon will have to sort this out on their own.

Well, Canada was part of these negotiaitons that broke down in Rome. It was said there were some pointed questions to Israel about how an international force wouldn't simply be in the line of fire from two sides wanting to duke it out. I doubt very much that Canada will be drawn into any type of force on the ground given the conditons in Lebanon.

I think the result from this will be a lack of faith in the safety of an international force going to Israel to enforce the peace. I think Harper is correct in saying that Canada will probably not take part. Either Hezbollah will use suicide bombers on that force or Israelis will hit the forces locations trading fire back and forth. I think Israel will have to occupy Lebanon and make its own arrangements to turn over the land.

It looks like the Chinese are majorly pissed on having their observer killed. Since they are on the Security Council, Israel might have to grovel quite a lot. Remember what happened when NATO hit the Chinese embassy in some other old war years back?

Is it really the pork lobby that is preventing a challenge on corn? I hadn't heard that. I believe environmental challenges to farm lobbies are separate issues to subsidizing farming.

One of the U.N. observers killed was reported to be a Canadian.

The U.N. and most countries and most countries asked the Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden. The evidence that the U.S. has on this remains classified although I can't think of too many countries who were opposed to bin Laden being turned over for questioning. The Taliban refused and the U.N. authorized that the U.S. move against Afghanistan. September 11 was only part of a long laundry list of attacks that had been traced back to bin Laden and Afghanistan. I was in support of the apprehending bin Laden and removing the Taliban if they were responsible for allowing attacks to take place from a safe haven in their country. I am now a little leary of the continued fight there as the problems of safe haven in Pakistan now threatens the security of Afghanistan. I'm not sure if Afghan forces will ever be up to the task and they may be frustrated by Pakistan not stopping the Taliban from constantly coming back. I am up for any evidence that Afghanistan was not involved in offering safe haven for attacks. I just haven't seen anything convincing yet. Have you? My neighbor was killed on September 11 so I'd like to see the persons responsible brought to justice.

Environmental regulations are not considered subsidies. And I have never heard that Canada has been more lax than the U.S. when it comes to pork production. And American susbsidies on corn can't be considered a subsidy to Canadian prok producers. Are marketing boards considered subsidies under NAFTA and the present guidelines of the WTO?

Isreali air raid kills 4 U.N. observers. http://www.cnn.com/ Harper says no to Canadian soldiers in Lebanon. http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...er-lebanon.html

You have evidence of that? Only that Osama bin Laden himself admitting he attacked and that he was in Afghanistan when he did it. You don't think he attacked on September 11?

He's being sued instead for putting the life of a CIA agent in danger. I think that is worse although you could say Halliburton has been killing American soldiers with its crappy food in Iraq for a couple of years now.

You have to be careful about Reader's Digests left in dentist's offices. That one you read might have been from 1961.

I think that most people were convinced that the country was being used as a safe haven for al Qaeda attacks on the rest of the world. You disagree?

Not sure if this should be covered in another area of the forum. Here's some info though that could help your argument, Michael. http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/sociology/popstudies/dp/dp03-03.pdf

Kind of suspicious. Two new members saying wonderful things about a new website. And who runs this website? No names or anything attached to the "about us" profile. Avoid this website like the plague because it is probably run by al Qaeda.

Republican sets up bill to allow Congress to sue President. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14020234/ Bush has been side-stepping his constitutional responsibility.

U.S. proposes 30,000 troops to Lebanon. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/25/...macy/index.html Yikes! Reagan's old staff should contact Bush now. Don't do it! Hezzbollah is probably dancing in the streets over that idea.

But how badly is Canada's market subsidized or protected aside from milk which is well documented. And I know some commentators blamed this on liberals but the farm lobby is one of the more conservative groups out there.

I know there are left led protests against the WTO but did they stop this round from going through? I remember seeing an analysis of the voting patterns of rural voters who were going to be affected by the Doha round and they were almost always conservative voters. In other words, despite the high visibility of left wing protests, it was the conservatives of the rural world, who put a stop to this round. At least that's how it seems. I'd like to see some more analysis first. And I know about milk subsidies. How are pigs subsidized? I thought the U.S. tried to take a crack at Canada last year over this and were unsuccessful. And I know nothing about chickens. Speaking of which, Canada won another round in the NAFTA on lumber. I wonder if that will enbolden lumber companies to resist the deal struck.

The East Coast speaks English? Half the time the CBC has to put up subtitles when they do an interview in Newfoundland. <heh>

<heh> What do you think James does when he isn't here? Nice work, by the way.

Why did it fail and what might it mean? http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/...r=1&oref=slogin

I can't help think that NATO might face what the French and Americans did in 1982. Robust or not. Suicide bombers are relentless.

I think you're right about changes in cars. While mass transit will probably get new investment through till 2017, I expect that there will be a push for increased energy savings in vehicles. Too much money has been spent on suburban development for it to be abandoned at this point. So if oil is hugely expensive in the future, cars will have to run on something else. Geothermal is the way to go. I can't wait to hear about about the first entire new sub-division that uses that technology.

Beirut has often been called the "Paris of the Mediterranean." Tourism was one of the largest industries in the city and at the time of the attacks nearly every hotel was filled (although many tourists stay with relatives). Travel agents accounted for at least 20,000 of the people there because they had booked return tickets for the summer. Coincidently, it was about 25,000 Canadians who requested help returning to Canada.