Monday, August 07, 2006

Northern Clarity: Canadian PM Harper Emerging as a Clear Thinker and Straight Talker on Middle East Issue

Joining the ranks of Australian Prime Minister John Howard as a clear thinker and straight talker, Canada's new Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a strong message of support for Israel and rejected criticism his government had shifted Canada away from its traditional role as an "honest broker" (code for Israel bashing) between Israel and its adversaries. Paraphrasing on several occasions a statement by former British prime minister Winston Churchill, Harper said Canada would not remain neutral between a fellow democracy and a terrorist organization.

What we refuse to do is to be drawn into a moral equivalence between a pyromaniac and a fireman... if a terrorist organization crossed Canadian borders, kidnapped our soldiers and hurled missiles at our population centres, Canada would do the same as Israel, “fight back,” the prime minister said.

In this excellent article, 'A Horrible Truth,' coming to us from another smart Canadian, David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen, via Real Clear Politics, Warren makes a strong case for avoiding the trap of over-emphasizing the need to avoid collateral damage in asymmetrical warfare: a small sample: Even "just war" acknowledges that, as in medicine, real mercy can sometimes require ruthlessness. We have forgotten this in the West. If we want to save civilians, over the longer run, we must resolve to call the enemy's bluff. Show him by our actions that hiding behind baby carriages will not save him. For the enemy will only stop using "human shields" when they cease to serve his purposes.

Also brought to us by Real Clear Politics, is this killer article by one our great thinkers, Dennis Prager. The Left's Inability to Confront Evil. These point are strong, clear and in my view irrifutable. A small sample: "Since the 1960s, when liberalism became indistinguishable from the Left -- e.g., when New York Times positions became indistinguishable from those of The Nation -- liberals tended to attack opponents of evil far more than those who actually committed evil. The Left (around the world) was far more antagonistic to Ronald Reagan than to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and far more disturbed by anti-Communism than by Communism. So, too, today. For example, with few exceptions (the liberal columnist Thomas Friedman being one of the most notable) one only hears conservatives use the term "Islamo-fascism." Nearly the entire academic world that discusses the issue is far more concerned with the threat of "Islamophobia" than of Islamo-fascism. Liberal and left-wing anger is largely reserved for conservatives and especially conservative Christians, while analogous antipathy about Islamic groups with genocidal designs on Israel or America is largely to be found on the Right."

Media Manipulating the War News?
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