Posted on 03/19/2006 9:20:33 AM PST by Heartofsong83
Who cares whether terrorists like us or not, argues Rondi Adamson Mar. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canada's role in the rehabilitation of Afghanistan will require us to kill people. And sometimes we will — unintentionally — kill innocent bystanders, as apparently happened earlier this week. It's called "war" and as the cliché goes, it is not pretty. Nor is it a science, where, if a formula is followed, the outcome is assured.
People will get mad at us. Many of them already are (remember 9/11, where Canadians were murdered?). Our "image," assuming it is a shiny one — and that could be debated — might get stained. But should we decide matters as important as where to send soldiers based on, "will they still like us in the morning?"
And who are the "they" we are so concerned about?
Headlines this week trumpeted the tale of Adam Budzanowski, the Canadian aid worker taken captive in the Gaza Strip by Palestinian terrorists, or "extremists," as some insist on calling them.
Budzanowski is quoted as saying, "When they were certain I was Canadian, they were very disappointed. Then, they told me, `We love Canada.' ... It's wonderful to have a Canadian passport because it changes people's minds. One of the guards kept asking me to say hello to Canada, so it does stand for something."
Yes, indeed it does. It stands for a country of which Palestinian terrorists claim to be enamoured. Members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine "love Canada." Ah, just makes you proud, doesn't it?
This is why my uncle died on the battlefields of France more than 60 years ago. So extremist Islamists could take the place of the German ones, only this time Canada would cleverly hedge its bets, "sort of" being involved in the war, but not at full throttle, lest we make the bad guys think badly of us.
If our goal, in other words, is to have a good reputation with Palestinian terrorists and Al Qaeda and their ilk, our work in Afghanistan may destroy the likelihood of that happening. But why should we care?
Consider the source. And I am not convinced our image abroad is what saved Budzanowski. After all, the other captives — 10, in total — were released, as well. Had the Palestinians who took them felt, using their twisted reasoning, that it was in their best interest to kill all 10 of them, the Canadian included, they certainly would have.
At the end of the day, it is what we think of ourselves that matters. Remember what our moms taught us: Any reputation worth having will not be acquired by worrying about what the cool kids think, or by trying to prove we are more cool than our neighbour.
Ottawa should make foreign policy choices based on right and wrong, and based on our interests — national security, preservation of freedom, helping our democratic allies. Keeping the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan surely fits the bill.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rondi Adamson is a Toronto writer whose articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal Europe and Tech Central Station.
Surprising this came from the great white north.
Yeah, and especially from the left-wing Toronto (Red) Star, which makes the New York Times look conservative...
I wonder if some Canadian bureaucrat is reading the article carefully, searching for an excuse to charge the author with a "hate crime."
Here she is with Stephen Taylor
The title sums it all up!!
Sweet Jesus - how did this ever get published by the Red Star?!?
I have no idea!!!
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