Canada ping!
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Posted on 06/09/2006 4:15:29 AM PDT by Clive
You see an amazing number of those yellow-ribbon "support our troops" magnets on cars these days.
Not since I went to Washington and the southern states during the buildup to the Iraq invasion in 2003 have I seen so many.
Down there, of course, it's different. Americans always seem to be at war with someone, or just taking a breather.
It's the price of empire.
Nations have characters, just like individual people, and America is by nature combative, self-confident, excitable and patriotic. It's also sometimes incredibly generous.
But now we're at war too, against the same enemy -- Islam in arms.
This is nothing new. The Western nations have been at war with Islam for most of the last 14 centuries.
And this time it really is war, not just tedious old "peace-keeping." We're exchanging fire with a foreign enemy massing more and more troops against us.
My neighbour's fiance, for example, was in the firefight that killed Capt. Nichola Goddard.
Even so, the reality is slow to sink in. Afghanistan is far away.
It all hit closer to home this past weekend when 17 alleged Ontario Muslim terrorists were arrested.
The shock was softened only by the failure of their alleged plot to blow up a lot of Canadians and cut off Prime Minister Stephen Harper's head.
That's our national character. Complacent. Naive. Swift to preach, but slow to act.
For the past half-century, we have been lulled into thinking we can live in a kind of Neverland where everybody is secure and nobody has to grow up.
We have tried to be a serenely nonjudgmental, non-threatening playground of multicultural equality, gender equality, income equality and behavioural equality, where everyone can do pretty much whatever he, she or it wants without fear of criticism or serious consequence.
Except, maybe smoke.
Having lived through this half-century myself, I have witnessed this kind of fecklessness gradually evolve into our national character.
But I think in the last short while it has started to evolve back.
It sometimes seems as though we're emerging from a prolonged daydream, shaking our heads and realizing much of the world is scary, ugly and hostile.
And it may be that underneath the new ashes, the embers of an older fire are still glowing.
For the character of the men, women and (yes) children who built our country out of wilderness, depression and two world wars was not the same as ours.
They were made of much sterner stuff. Circumstances left them no choice.
Well, the circumstances emerging today may leave us no choice, either. Let's hope we're up to it.
The first thing any war demands is we identify the enemy.
Despite much official reluctance to say so bluntly, the enemy is the old militant Islam in new dress.
Not all Muslims, obviously.
Most Canadian Muslims are no doubt loyal citizens and newcomers.
But they will have to accept that we need to root out the hostiles among the friendlies, and they have to help.
And if we do this effectively, it ends "official multiculturalism" -- the silly idea all cultures are just as good as ours.
Externally, Canadians will have to start contributing more to other parts of the world, both militarily and socially.
This, too, will be good. Despite our big talk, we have become one of the stingiest, least helpful, most hypocritical nations in the developed world.
In foreign affairs circles, we have become an international joke.
Internally, the emphasis will have to change too, from taking to giving.
Ever since politicians began developing the federal nanny state in the 1950s, we have been told to love our country for how much we get out of it.
But real patriotism and citizenship are not about how much you get. They're about how much you sacrifice for the future of your family, community and nation. The self matters less than others, the future more than the present.
Though often forgotten in peace time, this is a permanent human reality swiftly rediscovered when a nation is under attack.
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Canada ping!
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It's too bad Canada had to wake up to the real world, but it was inevitable. Luckily, this time 3000 innocents weren't killed.
"real patriotism and citizenship are not about how much you get. They're about how much you sacrifice "
JFK said it before and better, but... he's an American, and we're not THAY ready to get credit where it's due. LOL
I think JFK got his "Ask not..." idea from his Choate school motto, so I don't think the credit is due to him either!
There's the key. Muslims in this country will not be able to claim
ignorance of reality the next time. If and when they hear radical anti-West
or anti-Canadian rhetoric in their mosques in the future and don't
report it to the proper authorities, then they are equally to blame and are
enemies of this country and should be treated as such.
You are absolutely right. Remember, if they lie with dogs, they get up with fleas. Meaning, as you say, they are just as guilty as the perpetrators.
I saw the title, and thought you must be talking about all the porn spam in the News/Current Events sidebar.
Usualy in the defense of others.
It's the price of empire.
Find the American 'empire' on a map.
It's also sometimes incredibly generous
"Sometimes"?
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