Canada Says 'Now Is Not the Time' for War on Iraq

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada said on Friday that "now is not the time" for a war on Iraq and expressed optimism that a new British proposal at the United Nations could help end the deadlock over how to end the current crisis.

The British text -- which the Security Council could vote on by next week -- calls on Iraq to show by March 17 that it has demonstrated full co-operation with its international obligations to disarm.

Although France immediately dismissed the idea of a March 17 deadline, Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham told reporters the proposal was a positive step.

"I think we need to encourage our American allies to take the point that now is not the time for the use of force but rather to continue the diplomatic way that we've been moving down so far, and see if we can take this new initiative...as a way of breaking the impasse in the council," he said.

"What we do support is the (British) initiative, we support the sentiment behind it -- the recognition that we need more time and we need more clarity. So in that sense I think it's a very positive development."

The idea of giving Iraq a fixed deadline was raised by Canada last week at the United Nations. Washington reacted coolly to Ottawa's proposal to give Iraq a March 28 deadline to show it was complying with U.N. disarmament demands.

We should be grateful that a socialist country that bills itself as a purveyor of "soft power," and a "moral superpower," will always feel obliged to point out to us the "failings" of a "Cowboy Country" like ours. After all, we believe in such unfashinoable things as freedom, liberty, capitalism, and the right of individual self protectection.

I love how our detracotrs, such as the French, think calling us "Cowboys" is a bad thing. "Cowboys" in my mind were a noble lot back in the day. Taking care of the West's problems.

Canada and the rest of the World have to realize that the summers in the desert are brutal and would not be conducive to attacking Saddam. The longer they keep on pushing us back from starting, the more American lives that are put at risk.

Bush looked bad last night. He looked tired, worn down, etc. This indicates to me that we are going, and it will be soon. I don't think it will be much later than the 17th. It would have been way before now, but we've been trying to give cover to TB. God Bless the Brits. I hate to have to say anything positive about someone in the Labour Party, but TB has been a true friend.

I thought the best part of the news conference last night was when W said something like "I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and by God that is what I'm going to do." What a refreshing change from a certain traitor that used the Constitution to mop up after his trysts!

The Brits, the Spaniards, and the Eastern Bloc former Communist Nations have been great through this. It's not surprising that countries who cherish their newfound liberty such as Poland and the Czech Republic have come out strongly against Saddam Hussein's tyrrany.

I agree that poor W. looked somber last night. I am sure some of it was effect and some of it was that this decision is not an easy one to make. God bless him for showing restraint on that Ted Kennedy question. I know I would not have had as much composure as he did when punting that question. I would have traded personal attacks with Uncle Chappaquidick. Some of the crap he has to put up with from the Left is amazing.

W is not the only one. I find Ari Feischer absolutely amazing. I would have killed Hellen Thomas by now. Did you ever notice that Hellen and Gollum never appear in the same photo?

You know, my patience is exhausted. We have been at war with Islamic radicalism for about a decade. And the democrats never seem to pass on an opportunity to give aid and comfort to our enemies. The Republicans did not do this after Japan attacked us in WWII. Of course, most democrats never failed to give aid to the commies during the Cold War. I love this revisionist history where they make a positive contribution to the effort.

Canada owes its existence to the fact that the British army used smallpox against the Continental Army.

B. S***** C*****, A.P. U.S. History Teacher, July 2, 2002, Fills an important void Elizabeth Fenn’s Pox Americana examines the smallpox epidemic that struck North America during the American Revolution. The first half of the book examines how the Revolution facilitated the spread of smallpox, as the disease literally followed the troops from theater of operation to theater of operation, and how smallpox affected the war itself as it directly impacted the American invasion of Canada, Governor Dunmore’s attempt to arm escaped slaves in Virginia, and Cornwallis’ Southern campaign. Fenn convincingly argues that the disease did affect the course of the war and that possibly one of Washington’s most important decisions as commander of America’s revolutionary forces was to innoculate his army in 1777 through 1778. Fenn also puts forth an intriguing suggestion: the British may have embraced a policy of biological warfare when on at least two occasions, at Boston and in Virginia, the British allowed known carriers of the disease to disperse into the surrounding community. While Fenn’s evidence is circumstantial, it is convincing, especially in light of the fact that, as Fenn points out, the British had embraced a similar policy during Pontiac’s Rebellion when officials gave Amerindians blankets infected with smallpox. The second half of the work explores, in great detail, the impact smallpox had on the rest of the North American continent between 1775-1782. While the Revolution facilitated the spread of the disease on the east coast, missionary activity, inter-Amerindian warfare, and trade allowed the disease to reach epidemic proportion on the rest of the continent. Through tracing the spread of smallpox throughout the region, Fenn uncovers a continent intricately linked in a variety of ways, showing that even the most isolated sections of the continent were not necessarily safe from smallpox as complex forces carried the disease throughout the continent. Of particular interest is Fenn’s argument that guns and horses had an even larger impact on the plains culture than historians have acknowledged as it greatly aided the spread of smallpox throughout the plains and even possibly into the Pacific Northwest. Pox Americana fills a void in the historiography of the Revolution and the development of Empire in North America. While the work becomes a bit too quantitatively driven in the second part, it should serve as a wonderful foundation upon which future research on smallpox and its impact on the Revolution and North America can rest.

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