20Dec03-U.S. turned its back on Canada and other allies
Dec. 20, 2003. 01:00 AM
U.S. turned its back on Canada and other allies
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Americans remain mad at Canada
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Letter, Dec. 17.
Unlike France and Germany, Canada never took a simple, pacifist position on the Iraq war. In fact, prior to the invasion, I recall Canada shopping around a compromise proposal that would have created a hard deadline for Saddam's compliance, with a trigger mechanism for war if he refused.
This proposal attracted the attention of most Security Council members, including Great Britain. France and Germany rejected the proposal, of course, because they reasonably predicted it would still lead to war.
More puzzling, however, was George Bush's casual dismissal of the Canadian compromise. Had he accepted this proposal, the United States might have been able to conduct the war with a U.N. mandate, or at least shown that it cared about multilateralism and the rule of international law.
Had France used its veto, it would have been shown to have the more inflexible and indefensible position, refusing to allow the U.N. to enforce its own resolutions. The only cost to the Americans would be time — the deadline would have been the end of March.
But there was no time, claimed Bush. Saddam Hussein was an immediate threat. He could launch a gas attack in 48 hours This reasoning, as we all know,was based on lies and misinformation.
So rather than wait two weeks, the United States and Great Britain rushed in alone, alienating friends and allies, and for no good reason.
And the 4th Infantry, stranded in Turkey, had to wait until last week to make a meaningful contribution, while supply lines were under attack due to a lack of manpower.
And by the way, Canada's sons were not ``safe in their beds'' while this was going on. They were dying in Afghanistan, fighting the real war on terror.
The United States would have benefited greatly by accepting Canada's advice and friendship. Instead, it turned its back on a loyal ally and the rest of the world.
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John Bowker, Toronto
torontostar.ca |
