Posted on 09/12/2002 9:04:40 PM PDT by Roy Tucker
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has linked the Sept. 11 suicide attacks to the perceived arrogance and selfishness of the United States and the West.
Chretien is the first leader of a western major nation to suggest that the suicide hijackers might have been motivated by what he describes as the misguided policies of a rich and powerful West that did not understand the need for restraint.
The veteran prime minister, who has been in power for nine years, told the CBC in an interview aired late on Wednesday that there was "a lot of resentment" about the way in which powerful nations treated the increasing number of poor and dispossessed people in the world.
"You know, you cannot exercise your powers to the point of humiliation for others. That is what the Western world -- not only the Americans, the Western world -- has to realize. Because they (the have-nots) are human beings too. There are long-term consequences if you don't look hard at the reality in 10 or 20 (or) 30 years from now," he said.
Chretien continued: "And I do think the Western world is getting too rich in relation to the poor world and necessarily, you know, we're looked upon as being arrogant, self-satisfied greedy and with no limits. And Sept. 11 is an occasion for me to realize it even more."
A total of 3,025 people -- including 23 Canadians -- died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Chretien comes from the moderate left of Canada's ruling Liberal Party, which has sometimes looked upon Republican administrations with suspicion.
Canadian Transport Minister David Collenette -- also on the left of the party -- went further in an interview with the CBC that was broadcast in the same Sept. 11 package as the prime minister's. He likened some leading players in the United States to bullies on an ice hockey rink.
Chretien's relations with President Bush have always been cool and his criticism of Washington's increasingly unilateral foreign policy is unlikely to win him fresh friends in the White House.
The leader of the right-wing Canadian Alliance party, which is generally more favorably inclined toward the United States, quickly branded Chretien's musings as a disgrace.
"(His) comments -- particularly coming on the anniversary of Sept. 11 -- blaming the victim are shameful. What was behind the events of Sept. 11 are the forces of evil and hatred," said Stephen Harper.
"These must be resisted by free and democratic societies and their leaders. His comments are unacceptable, and he should apologize to the United States and to the families of the Canadian victims."
The local CBC radio station in Ottawa was flooded with calls on Thursday morning from listeners backing Chretien.
Bush met Chretien last week amid a concerted U.S. effort to persuade its allies of the need to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Chretien stressed instead the need to work through the United Nations to build a coalition.
Chretien's reflective comments were highly unusual for a man known as a down-to-earth politician with little time for the deeper philosophy of governance.
The one skill the West and the United States seemed to lack was that of knowing when to exercise some restraint, he said.
"It's always the problem when you read history -- (no one) knows when to stop. There's a moment, you know, when you have to stop," he told the CBC, saying he had made this point to a group of Wall Street executives unhappy that Canada had full diplomatic relations with arch U.S. foe Cuba.
"And I said that day...'When you're (as) powerful (as) you are, you guys, it's the time to be nice'."
Collenette himself showed little signs of restraint, telling the CBC that the collapse of the Soviet Union had removed an important check on U.S. foreign policy.
"There will be people in the United States sort of emboldened by their new source of unfettered power to -- in an (ice) hockey term -- get their elbows up," he said.
Foreign policy has never been high on Chretien's agenda, with the notable exception of Africa. At this year's summit of the Group of Eight most powerful nations, Chretien -- as host -- insisted his fellow leaders pay particular attention to a plan designed to help combat endemic poverty in Africa.
"I think the western world is a bit too selfish and that there is a lot of resentment. I felt it when I dealt with the African file for the G8 summit. You know, the poor get relatively poorer all the time and the rich are getting richer all the time," he said.
Time to close up our borders to the North, fund the Quebec liberation movement. Vive Quebec libre!
The colossal nerve of this guy to make this pronouncement on the anniversary of the terrorist attack makes my blood boil.
It wasn't Africans who flew the planes into the WTC. Africans trying to get visas to come to the US died at the hands of Al-Qaeda in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in front of our embassies.
Shame on Chretien and his cretins.
Not gonna happen...
Just part of life...
Feck off Chretian...
I have got to get this on my calendar.
Chretin now should put his money where his fraudulent mouth is by driving down the standard of living in Canada and forcing them to live like third worlders. Of course, this charlatan won't do any such thing; he'd rather affect that his fatuous smug Chretinisms are worth the saying.
How clueless is Chretien?
Why would Sept 11 remind him of this more? I didn't hear Osama call for debt relief, he called for a return to the Caliphate and Jihad.
He sounds like part of the elite of the Globalist faction, telling us (surely not himself) that we must give up our money to "help" the third world, meaning subsidies to Western banks.
A cathartic experience for lefties. An authority they can rely on, and cite forever, providing a pat answer that assuages their guilt, and bulwark against confronting information about Osama's and Islamism's goals and beliefs.
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