Bush snub no oversight

U.S. President George W. Bush's non-mention of Canada in his historic speech last night may have been much more than a thoughtless oversight.

It just might have been deliberate -- a highly noticeable-to- Canadians way of indicating he is not getting the kind of all-out cooperation from Prime Minister Jean Chretien that he feels the present crisis demands.

For starters, Chretien has been dithering about including Canadian fighting soldiers in a U.S.-led force to go after international terrorists. And U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci got a kind of brush-off Wednesday by Immigration Elinor Caplan when he urged the U.S. and Canada work out a common system of handling visitors, immigrants, refugees or terrorists at our border. Caplan mumbled something about Canadian "sovereignty" possibly being threatened.

Perhaps Bush was trying to send a wake-up jolt to Chretien, despite Canada's contributions of help after last week's disaster and the loss of Canadian lives. His message: We are in a tough, real war against international terrorism and we want you to be with us 100%.

For instance, in contrast to Chretien, Canada's far-off sister Commonwealth nation, Australia, has promised full military support, including fighting troops to back the U.S.-led forces.

"There is no point in a situation like this, being an 80% ally," declared Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

He contended that an all-out effort had to be made at this time or people in free and democratic societies such as Australia (and Canada) will be forced to live in an increasingly fearful and threatened world.

Now, that's the kind of determined attitude Bush was talking about last night when he declared: "Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Bush made it very clear that the enemy in this war will be terrorists like Muslim terrorist Osman bin Laden and his global network of mass murderers.

"The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them," said the president.

"We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence and every necessary weapon of war -- to the disruption and defeat of the global terror network."

However, Chretien keeps hanging back in making a commitment of fighting troops to the cause despite a national opinion poll this week that showed 79% of Canadians want a full military effort to disable the armies of countries that give safe haven to such terrorists. And 77% said Canada does a poor job of preventing terrorists from operating here.

However, Chretien may be afraid of offending the leftist, anti-American voters that have voted for him or the increasing number of Muslim voters.

If so, maybe that's why the federal government has been so zealous in not releasing the names of the estimated up to 60 Canadians killed in the attacks. And why Chretien didn't go to New York to view the disaster area -- or to Washington to see Bush as such leaders as British PM Tony Blair.

The foreign affairs department says their identities are "private" and media inquiries are referred to the U.S. government. So far, the names of only 11 of the Canadian victims have been filtered out by the media.

You get the feeling that the Chretienites don't want them known because media coverage about so many individuals and their suffering families might infuriate their fellow Canadians -- and increase demands for full military support.

And, on another front, Chretien is looking worse daily -- especially when he made the nutsy statement that there were no terrorists in Canada. That flew in the face of his own Canadian Security Intelligence Service that reported 50 terrorist groups and 350 individuals existed in Canada.

Now we have the report yesterday by Sun reporter Tom Godfrey that revealed a Middle Eastern man by the name of Nabil Al-Marabh lived in Toronto until six weeks ago and is believed to be the same man that the FBI agents arrested in Chicago in connection with last week's attacks. Unfortunately, Canada's longstanding reputation as "sucker nation of the world" in running a sieve-like immigration and refugee system is still intact.

But the heat is on to get with it 100% in going after bin Laden. And also in toughening our weak immigration system.

The blood of the 6,333 killed in the American attacks demands it. So does the blood of those nameless, anonymous Canadians.

But Stephen Newman, a political science professor at York University, said he thought Bush simply overlooked Canada.

"I think it was a stupid goof," he said.

I think Stephen Newman should reconsider his career focus. President Bush gave a speech in which EVERY word, spoken and unspoken, was carefully considered.

He is a leader and he wants everyone who is willing to fight for Civilization to be with him. He wants Canadians to be with him. And he recognizes that M. Chretien is acting as an impediment at present.

He sent a pointed message, and the message was received. If Stephen Newman does not see that, how many other political messages has he missed? Exactly what are his students hearing from him?

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