L. Ian MacDonald – Montreal Gazette, on Martin’s upcoming visit to the White House;
What Bush doesn’t need to hear from Martin is a lecture on why Canada stayed out of the war or hectoring over weapons of mass destruction that have never been found. If there’s one thing that drives Americans to distraction, it’s the insufferable Canadian sense of moral superiority. Nor does Bush need an offer of Canadian troops to help with the occupation in a time of murderous insurgency. Not that we have any soldiers to spare.
The insufferable Canadian press, reporting directly from BBC and CNN headlines and Ted Kennedy quotes, doesn’t help our credibility either.
What Bush could use is help from Canada in institution building, assuming the U.S. ever gets the insurrection under control and truepolitical and economic reconstruction underway. Martin will apparently offer such assistance, as did his predecessor, Jean Chretien, at last fall’s Madrid Donors’ Conference on Iraq.
Uh, yeah. Like the institutions Canada has built in other modern war-torn former dictatorships, liberated at the cost of American blood …. eh …. where was that again?
The Canadians talk about a smart border. They want trade crossing it. The Americans talk about a secure border. They don’t want terrorists crossing it.
The problem is that the Liberals keep forgetting where the smart border problems exist – at the shoreline of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Fix that, Mr Martin, and the one to the south will take care of itself.
Both men face elections this year. Both are in more trouble than they expected to be a year ago when Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and announced the end of military engagement in Iraq. In this cruel month of April alone, more American soldiers have been killed there than during the war itself.
Hmmmm…
Both men face elections this year. Both are in more trouble than they expected to be a year ago when Martin was quietly serving as a regular MP, the Liberal party in a peaceful transition period, and before the auditor-general revealed explosive details of Liberal corruption with the “Adscam” Scandal, with tentacles reaching into his very office during his tenure as Finance Minister.
There, that’s better. And so much more Canadian content than MacDonald’s version.
What it does involve is land-based systems with a command at NORAD, North American Air Defence, in which Canada has been the junior partner since 1958. Since we’re already at this table, all Martin has to do is announce we’re staying there. And since the U.S. is going to build NMD with or without us, it’s in our national interest to be there
reading on….
But Martin really shouldn’t worry about being seen with Bush. The Oval Office visit, a day after Bush’s secret testimony to the 9/11 commission, will feature waves of photographers and reporters wanting to know what the president said there. The other guy in the shot will be lucky to get a question, unless it’s about the Khadrs, Canada’s first family of terror.
And, the headline for this piece?
“Martin can help Bush and defend Canada’s aovereignty”