Posted on 03/04/2005 2:47:37 PM PST by bourbon
Missile Counter-Attack
Axworthy fires back at U.S. -- and Canadian -- critics of our BMD decision in An Open Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Thu Mar 3 2005
By LLOYD AXWORTHY
Dear Condi,
I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more.
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.
Sure, that doesn't match the gargantuan, multi-billion-dollar deficits that your government blithely runs up fighting a "liberation war" in Iraq, laying out more than half of all weapons expenditures in the world, and giving massive tax breaks to the top one per cent of your population while cutting food programs for poor children. Just chalk that up to a different sense of priorities about what a national government's role should be when there isn't a prevailing mood of manifest destiny.
Coming to Ottawa might also expose you to a parliamentary system that has a thing called question period every day, where those in the executive are held accountable by an opposition for their actions, and where demands for public debate on important topics such as missile defence can be made openly.
You might also notice that it's a system in which the governing party's caucus members are not afraid to tell their leader that their constituents don't want to follow the ideological, perhaps teleological, fantasies of Canada's continental co-inhabitant. And that this leader actually listens to such representations.
Your boss did not avail himself of a similar opportunity to visit our House of Commons during his visit, fearing, it seems, that there might be some signs of dissent. He preferred to issue his diktat on missile defence in front of a highly controlled, pre-selected audience.
Such control-freak antics may work in the virtual one-party state that now prevails in Washington. But in Canada we have a residual belief that politicians should be subject to a few checks and balances, an idea that your country once espoused before the days of empire.
If you want to have us consider your proposals and positions, present them in a proper way, through serious discussion across the table in our cabinet room, as your previous president did when he visited Ottawa. And don't embarrass our prime minister by lobbing a verbal missile at him while he sits on a public stage, with no chance to respond. Now, I understand that there may have been some miscalculations in Washington based on faulty advice from your resident governor of the "northern territories," Ambassador Cellucci. But you should know by now that he hasn't really won the hearts and minds of most Canadians through his attempts to browbeat and command our allegiance to U.S. policies.
Sadly, Mr. Cellucci has been far too closeted with exclusive groups of 'experts' from Calgary think-tanks and neo-con lobbyists at cross-border conferences to remotely grasp a cross-section of Canadian attitudes (nor American ones, for that matter).
I invite you to expand the narrow perspective that seems to inform your opinions of Canada by ranging far wider in your reach of contacts and discussions. You would find that what is rising in Canada is not so much anti-Americanism, as claimed by your and our right-wing commentators, but fundamental disagreements with certain policies of your government. You would see that rather than just reacting to events by drawing on old conventional wisdoms, many Canadians are trying to think our way through to some ideas that can be helpful in building a more secure world.
These Canadians believe that security can be achieved through well-modulated efforts to protect the rights of people, not just nation-states.
To encourage and advance international co-operation on managing the risk of climate change, they believe that we need agreements like Kyoto.
To protect people against international crimes like genocide and ethnic cleansing, they support new institutions like the International Criminal Court -- which, by the way, you might strongly consider using to hold accountable those committing atrocities today in Darfur, Sudan.
And these Canadians believe that the United Nations should indeed be reformed -- beginning with an agreement to get rid of the veto held by the major powers over humanitarian interventions to stop violence and predatory practices.
On this score, you might want to explore the concept of the 'Responsibility to Protect' while you're in Ottawa. It's a Canadian idea born out of the recent experience of Kosovo and informed by the many horrific examples of inhumanity over the last half-century. Many Canadians feel it has a lot more relevance to providing real human security in the world than missile defence ever will.
This is not just some quirky notion concocted in our long winter nights, by the way. It seems to have appeal for many in your own country, if not the editorialists at the Wall Street Journal or Rush Limbaugh. As I discovered recently while giving a series of lectures in southern California, there is keen interest in how the U.S. can offer real leadership in managing global challenges of disease, natural calamities and conflict, other than by military means. There is also a very strong awareness on both sides of the border of how vital Canada is to the U.S. as a partner in North America. We supply copious amounts of oil and natural gas to your country, our respective trade is the world's largest in volume, and we are increasingly bound together by common concerns over depletion of resources, especially very scarce fresh water.
Why not discuss these issues with Canadians who understand them, and seek out ways to better cooperate in areas where we agree -- and agree to respect each other's views when we disagree.
Above all, ignore the Cassandras who deride the state of our relations because of one missile-defence decision. Accept that, as a friend on your border, we will offer a different, independent point of view. And that there are times when truth must speak to power.
In friendship,
Lloyd Axworthy
Lloyd Axworthy is president of the University of Winnipeg and a former Canadian foreign minister.
-bourbon-
You can kiss your ass goodbye when the missile ever fly from North Korea.....because we won't waste our time defending you all.
P.S. Go hide in one of those day cares you wasted your defense budget to build.
In Friendship
One more thing Mr. Axlworty don't ever lecture us again.....we bled keeping dictators from your throats..
I like that.
Dear Ottawa:
OK, go ahead and fry then.
These guys do think they rule the world, don't they? Fortunately this particular intellectual dwarf has never been in a position of any political importance. I'd hate to think of the damage he could cause if he'd risen as high as, say, mayor of Toledo.
That was my question, also. It seems far too flippant to be such; surely the Canadians would have chosen a far more serious individual to have served as foreign minister?
Axworthy's concept of "real human security" sounds suspiciously like a backrub or a warm hug.
Oh, and just how does Canada exercise this 'responsibility to protect?' With kindly-intentioned backpackers and aid-workers?
Surely, he can't be foolish enough to suggest that Canada's weighty "responsibility" can be discharged via deployment of the country's underfunded and miserably depleted armed forces?
Canada, bless her heart, has little more standing in the world's court of opinion than, say, Belgium. Having lived and worked up North for 3 years, I came to find the real hot button for Canadian pride is lack of self confidence. They see themselves as poor cousins to the USA. But every once and a while they rear up and make noises as the Defence Minister did to let us know they are equals - tired of being pushed around by us.
Canada has so much potential to be a great country in the world -vast natural resources, a well educated populace and a very willing work force.
Unfortunately years of socialism made them complacent and, in the end, even more dependant upon the USA for customers of their resources, labor and for their defence.
"I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House ...."
THIS BETTER BE A PARODY WITH HIS SLAVERY COMMENT. IF not I will personally kick this guy in the Balls.
On May 1, 2004, Lloyd Axworthy became The University of Winnipeg’s sixth President and Vice-Chancellor. His installation took place on June 6, 2004 at The University of Winnipeg’s 77th Convocation.
Previously, Dr. Axworthy was the director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at The University of British Columbia. Canada's Foreign Minister from 1995 to 2000, Dr. Axworthy's political career spanned 27 years, six of which he served in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, and 21 in the Federal Parliament. He held several Cabinet positions, notably Minister of Employment and Immigration, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Minister of Transport, Minister of Human Resources Development, Minister of Western Economic Diversification, and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
see post #15.
This is proof that liberals are racist. How dare he speak that way about someone with a different skin colour than him. As far as I remember there were 0 blacks given a senior cabinet role in his government. And he's one of the losers responsible for the weakening of Canada's armed forces.
I would love to see Mark Steyn pen a response to this.
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