Bush gave a speech in Halifax where he almost but didn't apologise, used a lot of humour and used it well, but the bottom line is he showed no contrition whatsoever for basic principles violated ... much comment was made on his choice of venue, avoiding less pliable audiences elsewhere in this country, fwiw ... but he almost came clean, and didn't - failure
Canadians do invasions, btw, and do them rather well ... all the left flank going through Nederlands and coastal Germany in '44-'45 was handled by canadians, who got quite deep into Niedersachsen by 8 May, place called Oldenberg ... until not so many years ago we had a plan to invade the US in case of US strikes on us, there were to be flying columns piercing deep at three points, to keep US forces as far south as possible, giving time for british and anzac troops to arrive and help us .... the last known of these plans was made in 1929, many who were around then are still here .... oh yeah we'll go for the right invasion at the right time provided it's for the right reasons and has a rightly thought plan .... but you can't order us around, you got to let us in on the decision .... 'If you want us to help you, call us to your councils', as Laurier said to Whitehall 105 years ago ..... and this requires institutions in which to hold these councils, which means a reversal of the institution-destroying course of neocon Bushworld
Without canucks, you lose ... that's two in a row now, Vietnam and Iraq, when will they wake up down there .... anyway, immediately speaking, here's the first two stages of a recovery plan for Bush credibility -
1. Admit the mistake for acting [insert term less contentious than 'unilaterally' but meaning the same as you and i understand it], just drop the arrogance
2. Resolve in public in clear words to work towards wider cooperation between nations ... maybe only an ad hoc coalition of democracies first, but a real one not a phoney bullying and bribing of the weak ... and it wouldn't hurt to do some lip service to the eventual goal of functioning international institutions, scarey though the thought may be to the top dog du jour .... powerful the US military may be, but it's not omnipotent, no purpose is served by keeping the Rest of Us in fear of it |
