Shut Up And Listen 105

Operation US Hypocrisy
 Okay, this column was going to be a discussion of postmodernism and morality and various other things, but well, recent events supersede that I guess. So here’s me talking about the war in a rather fragmented manner.
	Okay, the Americans are fucking hypocrites. They go on and on and on about how this is a fucking war about “liberating” the Iraqi people, but that’s bullshit. It has to be.
	Enter the “Coalition of the Willing”.
	Let me ask you something. How many US allies are dictatorships? If the answer is more than zero then obviously this war on Iraq honestly cannot be about liberating the Iraqi people from a dictatorship. How many of those dictatorships have tyrannical dictators who have killed their own people? Again, if the answer is more than zero . . . How many terrorists that attacked the US came from Iraq? If the answer is less than one then it can’t really about terrorism. Especially when an ally is the country where the terrorists came from. How many of the US allies’ governments refused to be named because their people were so against the war (so-called “democracies”, right?)? How many of the nations are dependent on US aid? How many want to get into NATO and hope the US will help them?
	How many of the US’ direct neighbours are involved?
	Well, let’s see: Canada, nope. Mexico, nope. Think about that.
	You know what, I think if the actual pure goal was taking out Hussein, I honestly think I might be behind this whole thing. How can you not be, really? But just looking at some allies like Saudi Arabia and other Middle-East nations, and the way the US has handled Afghanistan after they “liberated” it, I can’t help but think that maybe the US isn’t the nation to be doing it.
	The thing about this whole war I really love is that the US took over the largest Iraqi radio station on Wednesday. During a broadcast, the regular DJ was replaced by someone else and apparently the tone of the broadcast shifted. I like that. That is the smart way to win the war. Propaganda, baby. Beaming out US thoughts all day, every day across the Iraqi airwaves. Pure brilliance.
	“But, Chad, how do you know all of this? CNN doesn’t say any of this.”
	Two words: CBC Newsworld. I fucking love Canadian media now.
	I’ve found that because Canada is not involved with this whole thing that our media can present a much more objective point of view. It’s rather interesting flipping back and forth between CNN and CBC Newsworld. CNN is much more interesting in supporting the troops than in reporting the news. Seriously. Newsworld is much more interested in reporting the news (beyond the war, also) than in showing a subjective point of view. It does show subjective points of view, but generally in the context of call-in shows and such, or asking poli-sci profs for their opinions or something. The single greatest side-effect of Canada’s lack of involvement.
	Okay, there’s been some discussion about Canada’s choice not to participate and whether or not this will hurt our relations with the US. It could. I don’t think it necessarily should though. People keep saying how we should back them up as they’re our friends and such, well I agree that’s a nice sentiment, but also, sometimes a friend has got to step back and let their friend make their own mistake. I mean, just because they’re a friend, we have to follow them? We didn’t during Vietnam and it didn’t hurt our relations too seriously. We made it clear that we were only going in with United Nations approval. It was not a betrayal on our part or anything. It’s a difference of opinions. Hopefully it remains seen as that.
	And with that note, I’ll end things, except for one thing: those two pilots who killed four Canadian soldiers last year in Afghanistan were recommended to be given only an internal reprimand instead of a court martial hearing by some preliminary person. That isn’t a definite thing or anything yet, but I thought it was worth noting. Great fucking timing. And we should be worried about pissing off the Americans.
	Next week, hopefully, I’ll have that planned column. Or maybe some more war shit.