May i offer my abject apology LindyBill, on typing that i thought the bird of paradise reference was something of a blessing, didn't know the lyrics beyond that one line .... just looked them up, it is more of a curse really - lyricsplayground.com
.. and that was not intentional, i should have checked first ... it is true that the orifice of preference bit was intended to be sufficiently ambiguous to evoke within the reader a range that could arguably be stretched from the ultra-PC to something less than complimentary, yes .... and here is where i shall refrain from dwelling on the degree to which your own posts have strayed to the latter [strictly in the interests of furthering multilateralism, you understand-g-]
The Ed McCurdy song is great, we've all heard it sung with feeling, fine piece of music and a wonderful dream ... still a dream though, and will be but a dream for a long time to come, i agree .... there is such a thing as just war, which can in some cases include nations [plural] waging war outside their own borders, again i agree ... in fact i would like to see Canada rebuild its military significantly, making sure always that its forces are for the serving of canadian interests, and the interests of the species in general, and absolutely without any intermediate step of habitually serving the interests of the war office of any other single nation
So the 'anti-war' label becomes a little problematic, as you can see .... no i don't like war, clearly it shames our species, still it is a part of human culture and our survival, let alone progress, means being competent at war, peace at any price is not an option, there again you and i would agree
Saddam Hussein is a vicious unilateralist and his weapons should be taken from him, there again we agree .... it is only in follow-on questions where we diverge -
In what manner, in what timing, do we take his weapons from him?
What do we mean by 'we' in the previous question?
How do 'we' so direct 'our' actions as to avoid creation of greater problems than 'we' are attempting to solve?
What priority do we place on Hussein, in view of other Geopolitik? [alphabetically, H is eight places down, so if using that order on surnames 'we' need first to deal with Yasir, if by first names then 'we' start with Ariel]
... et cetera ... my view is that here today it is far more important to build working international cooperation than it is to put the final golpe de gracia to one already contained dictator, and that focussing on the latter in a manner damaging to the former is short-sighted, it has great potential to form more problems than it solves .... this doesn't mean the french regime du jour should control everything either, any more than should the US regime du jour - the species is so much larger than that, and the planet so much smaller |
