You're Not Trusted, PM Tells U.S. (Canada officially joins the Axis of Weasel!)

The Globe and Mail ^ | February 14, 2003 | Shawn McCarthy

[quidnunc]

Chrétien calls for UN involvement hours after Bush urges U.S. allies to show backbone in facing Iraqi threat

Chicago – As the threat of war grows, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien stood on U.S. soil Thursday night and warned the United States that it is not trusted in the world and needs United Nations legitimacy for a war on Iraq.

In a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Chrétien urged the Americans to refrain from a quick military response if the UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, reports Friday that Iraq has violated UN resolutions aimed at forcing it to destroy weapons of mass destruction.

"The price of being the world's only superpower is that its motives are sometimes questioned by others," Mr. Chrétien told his audience.

"Great strength is not always perceived by others as benign. Not everyone around the world is prepared to take the word of the United States on faith."

The Prime Minister spoke just hours after U.S. President George W. Bush urged U.S. allies to "show backbone and courage in the face of true threats to peace and freedom."

The crisis over Iraq is expected to deepen Friday morning, when Mr. Blix is to appear before an open UN Security Council meeting attended by the world's most influential foreign ministers.

Although he is expected to give a mixed report on Iraqi co-operation, the Bush administration has signalled its intention to put skeptics on the defensive, demanding they explain why Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be given more time to work with the inspectors.

Mr. Chrétien, who delivered his speech amid heavy security, said Canada firmly supports the goals of the United States in Iraq, and he applauded Mr. Bush's leadership. But he told his audience that if the United States, without UN support, wages war against a Muslim nation, it would raise the spectre of a "clash of civilizations."

Foreign Minister Bill Graham, speaking earlier in Ottawa, went further and said a unilateral attack on Iraq could lead to the toppling of unstable governments in the Middle East and Asia.

"I see a destabilized Middle East; I see problems in Indonesia, in India, in Pakistan," Mr. Graham told reporters in Ottawa, referring to the risks of anti-Western violence and possible acts of terrorism raised by a war against Iraq.

Mr. Graham said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and others in Washington know there are risks of an Iraq conflict spreading to countries where extremists threaten unstable governments. He said he had told Mr. Powell: "The U.S. would be better served if it stayed within the UN process."

-snip-

[Pippin]

Does this mean I have to remove the Canadian flag from my prifile page?

Not trying to make trouble, just asking a question.

I'm really disappointed in Canada and the Canadians, to tell the truth I've even defended them here on FR. Now they've joined with Germany and France?

Maybe Western Canada should succeed and join with the US and lest the eastern half of that country go thier own weenie way!

[Post Toasties]

One rotten province doesn't mean the whole country is spoiled. After all, wrt Chretin (sic, real sic) etal, we're talking about people who are still trying to inject cultural wars from the eighteenth century into modern geopolitics. And the ilk of bin Laden shows us what that's good for.

[Let's Roll]

Paraphrasing Rush from yesterday about the dim pols in the US congress, let them continue to act out. They lose credibility and relevance by the minute. The best thing for us is for the UN to be finally regarded world wide as the joke we've all known it to be.

We've ignored and allowed both groups to operate more or less unimpeded for decades but now we are finally focused on them. True it took a threat to our very lives to finally get our attention but we were busy: working, raising families etc.

[Pippin]

No, I didn't say the whole country was rotten as you put it, I mean only those who follow an all too liberal drum beat. My mom is from western Camada and is far more Conservative that that goose that's ruining that country.

[Dan(9698)]

>>>...Because like it or not, they don't trust us. That's a simple fact of life.

And?.....

[headsonpikes]

Christ, I hope not.

I really do.

I can't stand having to be ashamed of my country.

It's a disgrace, and a betrayal of all those poor Canuck b*stards dead in the mud of Europe.

If Chretien weasels, I don't know how we can celebrate July 1st this year. :-(

And November 11th will be particularly grim.

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

warned the United States that it is not trusted in the world and needs United Nations legitimacy for a war on Iraq.

let's prove him right and bomb Toronto!! ;)

[hardhead]

Eh?

[doug from upland]

Send the bastards more tainted blood.

[Doc Savage]

Fortunately, our missiles can easily fly north!

[Dog Gone]

Chretien is doing more damage to Canadian/US relations than I ever could have imagined.

If Canadians do not replace him at the next opportunity, I fear that the damage will be permanent.

[Loyalist]

Let's prove him right and bomb Toronto!!

Bombing Toronto would unite all of Canada behind the US. Those Canadians who hate the US, hate Toronto even more!

[Cdnexpat]

The problems in Canada run deep, but the cancer is almost exclusively in Ontario and Quebec. M. Chretien and his Liberal party have a hammerlock on power due to a division of conservative votes in Ontario for seats in the House of Commons; compounded by a corrupt senate and corrupt supreme court. The Chretiens take a perverse please in pissing off G W Bush, eg Cdn Ambassador Raymond Chretien announcing during the election that Canada wanted Al Gore to win. His punishment for interfering in the US election? Sent to paris to be the ambassador to france. Taxpayer's dollars are used to fund a continuous stream of anti-US rhetoric on the CBC, Canada's version of PRAVDA. These people define Canadian simply as "not Americain". Sorry I have to keep this short. As to your question, I'd probably remove it, think of it as a first step to letting those who tolerate knee jerk anti-Americainism know that from now on it has a price.

[GaConfed]

Of course, there'd have been no Cajun cuisine, but the Acadians have never produced countless idiot politicians like the Quebecois.

You must not follow Louisiana politics very closely. Ever heard of Edwin Edwards? Or Mary Landrieu? Oh, I forgot; Edwainnnnnnnn is no idiot, even though he is in jail at the present time. Just totally, completely, and proudly currupt. Now, Miss Mary.............she is truly an idiot.

[Pippin]

Thanks, I think I will remove it because in keeping it there, some would see it as anti-American rather that my attempts to say I'm proud of my other heritage.

So in removing it this will send a message that I'm not anti_American.

[Mr. Lucky]

Could you bring some LaBatt's and Cuban cigars?

There are lots of thing we Yanks love about Canada, French socialism just isn't one of them.

[GoAhead-Make My Day]

It doesn't make sense, yesterday they agreed to send 3000 troops to Afghanistan, and I think today they agreed to send 2 ships to the Gulf, and then their Prime Minister comes out with this???

Smells like he's playing some political game and talking out of both sides of his mouth to appease all his lefty and righty friends.....

[GoAhead-Make My Day]

..and nothing, I'm just pointing a fact out, I don't think anyone believes our motivations for war, maybe we aren't being convincing enough, I don't know.

[GoAhead-Make My Day]

Sorry, I guess I just wish people would believe our intentions are not revolving around oil.

[Movemout]

"Not everyone around the world is prepared to take the word of the United States on faith."

They are, however, prepared to accept all of our assistance when they get their hindquarters in a bind. Jean is a Frenchman clad in Canadian woolens. I fart in his general dierection.