These idiots still have their collective heads up their butts:
Now Ottawa backs U.S.'s war with Iraq
'Saddam is dangerous': Foreign Minister wishes allied troops 'Godspeed'
Sheldon Alberts, Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief
National Post
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
CREDIT: Tom Hanson, The Canadian Press
Defence Minister John McCallum responds to questions concerning Canadian Forces in the Persian Gulf, during Question Period in the House of Commons yesterday.
OTTAWA - Bill Graham, the Foreign Affairs Minister, yesterday said Canada supports the U.S. plan to oust Saddam Hussein and wished American and British troops "Godspeed" in winning a swift victory.
Less than a week after Jean Chrétien, the Prime Minister, argued against regime change, Mr. Graham said Canada now recognizes Saddam must be removed from power if the United States is to succeed in disarming Iraq.
"Many Canadians are supportive of the United States, and we as a government are supportive of the United States's desire to get rid of Saddam Hussein, to deal with the weapons of mass destruction issue around the world," Mr. Graham told reporters outside the House of Commons.
Canada has been vocal in its opposition to the Bush administration's stated goal of removing Saddam, and last week opposed the United States's decision to go to war without explicit United Nations Security Council authorization.
Even after the war began, Mr. Chrétien said: "If we start to go and change every government that we do not like in the world, where do we stop? Who is next?"
Mr. Graham said yesterday Canada still opposes regime change in principle. But now that the U.S. has launched its war against Iraq, Mr. Graham said the U.S. victory hinges on Saddam's removal.
"Now that war is underway -- despite all our efforts to try and stop it from happening -- we are obviously not indifferent to its outcome. I hope now that it is commenced that the United States will win a swift victory with minimum casualties," Mr. Graham told the National Post.
"It has never been our policy for regime change. But it is a different situation now, a war is actually underway."
Asked if Canada now accepted the need to change the regime in Iraq, Mr. Graham said: "It is not a question of accepting that. It is a question of that is what is now underway.
"We recognized that Saddam Hussein is dangerous, had used weapons of mass destruction before and now that the conflict is engaged ... we wish our American friends and British friends Godspeed."
Mr. Chrétien and senior ministers in the government -- including Mr. Graham and John Manley, the Deputy Prime Minister -- have adopted a much softer tone towards the U.S.-led war in recent days after reactions of anger and anti-Bush rhetoric from Liberal MPs immediately after the attacks began.
The Prime Minister, after initially saying the war was "unjustified," has since said the United States had a "privilege and right" to attack.
Still, the early anti-U.S. sentiment reaction has infuriated Bush administration officials.
Sources told the National Post that Canadian officials had told Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush's National Security Advisor, that Ottawa respected the U.S. decision even though Canada would not offer military support. Similar sentiments were expressed by Mr. Graham in private discussions with Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State.
One Bush administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Chrétien's ministers and aides had given "lots of assurances that there would not be any name calling and gratuitous sniping" at the United States.
Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, is scheduled to deliver a speech today in Toronto in which he will react to Ottawa's decision and some of the Liberal criticisms of the war.
Even as Mr. Graham wished the United States a quick victory, there were new signs of tension between Washington and Ottawa over a U.S. request for its allies to expel Iraqi diplomats.
Iraq has only one diplomat posted in Canada -- Mamdouh Mustafa, the Iraqi embassy's first secretary and chargés d'affaires.
Canada has decided against revoking Mr. Mustafa's diplomatic status because the government wants to keep lines of communication open -- especially once reconstruction begins in Iraq after a U.S. victory, said Mr. Graham.
"There will be a lot of Iraqi diplomats and others who could well be useful in terms of being able to guide a post-Saddam situation. So let us not prejudge it," said Mr. Graham, adding that Canada will continue to review the Iraqi diplomat's status.
"We have not been negligent about having these people removed if they represent any kind of threat to Canada or Canadians."
salberts@nationalpost.com |
