Okay I just emailed it again and then clicked on the URL that came up under my sent items and it was there. You should have it now. *fingers crossed*
OK ... that one worked
http://www.nationalpost.com/search/site/story.asp?id=4490B5A0-88FB-4ABD-BDE4-F4EAB5B3019F
Anti-U.S. rhetoric cleaves Liberals
Gillian Cosgrove
National Post
Saturday, February 08, 2003
Colleen Beaumier
Carolyn Parrish
At the dog-racing tracks in Florida, there are men and women whose job it is to sweep up after the greyhounds. Greyhounds are highly excitable animals, and they can leave a stinking mess.
I would rather swap jobs with a greyhound-track flunky than have the mission that some Liberal MPs from the Toronto area have assumed as apologists for one of the most wicked human swine to deface this planet, Saddam Hussein.
While some are propagandists for Saddam's genocidal empire, others have poured scorn on our best friends and allies, the Americans, and taken cheap shots at the Israelis. And the Prime Minister of Canada, to his shame, sits silent, leaving us with the impression that he may share their views. Indeed, my spy in the Liberal caucus tells me the PM has nodded approvingly when hearing some of these anti-American diatribes.
Two of these MPs hail from Mississauga (is there something in the water there?): Colleen Beaumier, the Liberal MP for Brampton West-Mississauga, and Carolyn Parrish, the Liberal MP for Mississauga Centre. These dingbats are competing to be politically correct in the eyes of the anti-American and pro-Palestinian causes.
What's happening in Mississauga and environs is a microcosm of the inflammatory rhetoric that is ripping the federal Liberal caucus in two. The rift deepened this week as Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State, disclosed Iraqi's sorry record of obstructionism and non-compliance with weapons inspectors to the UN Security Council.
Beaumier has just returned from a one-woman peace mission to Baghdad where she met Iraqi officials, including Tariq Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister, all of whom she found "extremely charming." Little wonder, then, that the CBC reported breathlessly, in coverage that gave her more face time than MPs normally enjoy, that she had received "the royal treatment."
Beaumier said she opposed a war on Iraq because "46% of the population is 16 and under. It would be a war on children and I don't believe Canadians would want to do that."
Is Baghdad Beaumier so enamoured of the Iraqi people that she can't see the lunacy of her words?
She conveniently overlooks the fact that Saddam has committed atrocities against his own people for decades and he is none too picky about sparing the children.
Indeed, he has found that one of the most effective ways to extract confessions from prisoners is to gouge out the eyes of their children in front of them.
This is the same Beaumier who last October lavished praise on Saddam's totalitarian regime as "a progressive country with health care for all and education and human rights for women, which is far more advanced than other friendly Middle Eastern countries."
She went on to describe this rogue power as "a secular state offering a relative degree of equality for all its citizens," unless you have the misfortune to be one of those less equal Iraqis like the Kurds who were the victims of genocide in 1988 when Saddam viciously used poison gas against them.
Next up to bat for the lunatic left is Carolyn Parrish. She threatened to quit the Liberal Party if Canada joined a war on Iraq without the mandate of the United Nations Security Council.
She was apoplectic with rage because John McCallum, the Defence Minister, dared to state the obvious: that Canada just might have to join a U.S.-led war against Saddam even if the UN did not sanction it.
"This is crazy," she fumed. "I don't think we should be helping Americans to get away with this. This is just the boys playing with their big toys and, although we can't stop the Americans, we don't have to legitimize this."
Of the mild-mannered McCallum, a graduate of McGill and Cambridge universities and former dean of arts at McGill, she raged, in the idiom of the gutter, "I can't believe McCallum is down in Washington farting around like this, making stupid statements."
These inflammatory remarks are offensive and insulting because they suggest that responsible U.S. leaders would make the immensely solemn decision to declare war with the impulsiveness of little boys.
Earlier last year, the censorious Parrish (who, according to a cabinet colleague, makes no secret of her ambition to succeed Hazel McCallion as mayor of Mississauga) wrote a letter to the Toronto Star suggesting that the terrorists had destroyed themselves and innocent victims on 9/11 because they were "desperate."
Beaumier and Parrish, the Mississauga Musketeers, have little in common, other than the female sex, their suburban roots, and the federal Liberal Party. They are certainly different in the way they finance their "fact-finding" missions. Careful not to appear in the pocket of the Iraqi regime, Beaumier "paid her own way and did a helluva a job," according to Donn Lovett, a long-time Calgary Liberal activist who claims to be a key Paul Martin supporter and who accompanied her on the recent trip to Baghdad. He estimated they each paid between $4,000 and $5,000 for the five-day visit.
Last May, Parrish, another Martin supporter, headed a group of nine MPs who visited the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel. The trip was funded by Palestine House, a Palestinian cultural centre in Mississauga. The delegation produced a report that was harshly critical of Israel.
Rounding out the west-end trio of MPs is Bonnie Brown of Oakville, who last week dismissed George W. Bush, the U.S. President, as little more than a spin doctor using smoke and mirrors to justify a war. "It was wonderful American showmanship," she said in reaction to his State of the Union speech. "I thought the writers used wonderful words ... but substantively there wasn't much in it."
Last year, Brown, with a straight face, compared any possible U.S. attack on Iraq to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941.
Contrast these rash and impulsive statements with the more thoughtful and balanced views of another Liberal MP from Mississauga, Albina Guarnieri, a diminutive woman whose stature is in inverse proportion to her heart.
In the Commons last week, as her Liberal colleagues heaped abuse on Bush and the Americans, Guarnieri stood up and said: "Obviously, we all hope that Iraq will do what is required to keep the peace, but in all likelihood, just a few weeks from now, I think our closest allies will be at war with a murderous regime that gases its own people and has weapons that threaten North American security. We are going to have to make a choice. Are we going to support our closest allies or are we going to give Iraq a vote of confidence by remaining neutral?"
Other thoughtful peace proponents in the Liberal Party include John Godfrey, of Don Valley West, and Carolyn Bennett, of St. Paul's. They also object to Canada joining a U.S.-led attack on Iraq without the sanction of the UN. But they are careful to avoid the minefield of strident anti-Americanism and the naive effort to turn Saddam, the despot, into Saddam, the defender of human rights. Godfrey has argued that Canada must not go to war unless the U.S. can prove that Iraq is an aggressor poised to attack and that this dangerous situation can no longer be contained by arms inspections.
Everyone knows the rhetoric of war tends to be inflamed and that truth is the first casualty. But I think the good burghers of Mississauga and Oakville have every right to feel disappointed at the outlandish statements of Beaumier, Parrish and Brown. (Parrish, mastering the art of a media stunt, even held up a bullet she brought back from the Middle East for a closeup.)
The three MPs continue to insist that, judging by the letters flowing into their riding offices, they have the support of the majority of Canadians. If so, it's a sad day for Canada.
gcosgrove@rogers.com
© Copyright 2003 National Post
Thanks Mo. Now I'm off to bed. Good night all. Westy - keep up those beautiful pics. Val, keep us updated on your wonderful sunsets and of course, MR. RIGHT. (just out of curiosity, how do you get a Llama in a Corvet when it needs to go to the vet??? LOL - Roof rack.
The women and children of Iraq are at risk because the "men" use them as shields.
That was a bold move, westy -- glad it worked out well.
I guess I ought to get some sleep.... good night yall.
