Here is an article of interest. Here is Haroon Siddiqui's analysis of the talk in case you missed it.
Ed Corrigan
By Haroon Siddiqui
Why were the Liberals at their policy conference in Montreal stunned into silence by what former diplomat Robert Fowler had to say? He was telling them the truth, especially on Afghanistan and the Middle East, which Michael Ignatieff has been avoiding or obfuscating.
The media have mostly reported Fowler's three comments: That the Liberal party is selling its soul as it says and does anything to "shill for votes." That Stephen Harper's "endorsement of Israel, right or wrong" has meant "selling out our widely admired and long-established reputation for fairness and justice in this most volatile and dangerous region of the world" – the Middle East. That Canada does not deserve to be elected to the UN Security Council in 2011-12.
There was a lot more to Fowler's devastating critique of Canada's foreign policy, which he said is being held hostage to vested domestic political interests. For example, Liberals have mollycoddled the supporters of Tamil Tigers. And politicians of all stripes have rubbed shoulders with those B.C. Sikhs who venerate the terrorists of the 1985 Air India bombing, he said.
Fowler, 64, was an adviser to Pierre Trudeau's global peace mission; foreign policy adviser to John Turner and Brian Mulroney; a former deputy minister of defence (during the 1993 Somalia scandal when Canadian soldiers tortured and killed Somali civilians); and Canada's longest serving ambassador to the UN (where he helped stop the sale of blood diamonds from Angola). In 2008, he was the UN's special envoy to Niger, where he was kidnapped by Al Qaeda and held captive for five months. He is, in Ignatieff's words, "a Canadian hero."
The hero opened by saying he was going to be "blunt and rude," and "not mince my words." He was and he didn't.
As if pre-empting this week's American pressure for Canada to stay on in Afghanistan, he said the mission remains muddled: "It is not clear what it is that we are trying to accomplish" there. More crucially: "We will not prevail in Afghanistan.
"We are simply not prepared to foot the massive price in blood and treasure, which it would take to effectively colonize Afghanistan and replace their culture with ours, for that seems to be what we seek, and the Taliban share that view.
"It is time to leave. Not a moment, not a life and not a dollar later."
On the Arab-Israeli conflict, we must "accept the reality and importance of the ironclad link between non-peace and continuing turmoil and volatility in the Middle East, on the one hand, and the rise and growing strength of international terrorism, on the other – terrorism which is inflaming fundamentalist Islamic diasporas through the world, including Canada ...
"When will we accept that one causes the other? What does it take to get that to sink in? It's there for all to see but it is apparently politically incorrect to draw attention to it.
"It seems that anybody who presumes to acknowledge this blindingly obvious linkage is immediately labelled anti-Semite ...
"I guess we are supposed to presume that the allure of jihad will inextricably dim, as Israel builds ever more settlements in illegally occupied territories in contravention of a myriad of international judgments, and hope that 10 million Palestinians will just forget about it and decide that being homeless and stateless and living for a fourth generation in impossibly squalid refugee camps is an outcome that they just better suck down and accept."
He added that the Mideast conflict is also fuelling jihadist movements across North Africa, especially in Somalia, Niger and Nigeria.
Without "generous, timely and focused assistance, there is a good chance of Al Qaeda realizing their dream of turning the northern part of Africa into a combination of Afghanistan under the Taliban, Darfur and the current murderous anarchy in Somalia."
"Allowing the situation between Israel and Palestine to continue to fester only makes this version of hell a more present and likely reality."
Fowler was echoing a growing consensus around the world, including lately in the United States, that the Israeli occupation, oppressive and endless, fuels terrorism and not just at Israel. It is one of the root causes of instability in the Middle East and hurts American national security interests.
Fowler acknowledged that Canada's pro-Israeli tilt began before Harper (under Paul Martin), but "the extent to which radical voices within domestic constituencies are being indulged over the past few years has been taken to a whole new level."
Ed Corrigan
Why were the Liberals at their policy conference in Montreal stunned into silence by what former diplomat Robert Fowler had to say? He was telling them the truth, especially on Afghanistan and the Middle East, which Michael Ignatieff has been avoiding or obfuscating.
The media have mostly reported Fowler's three comments: That the Liberal party is selling its soul as it says and does anything to "shill for votes." That Stephen Harper's "endorsement of Israel, right or wrong" has meant "selling out our widely admired and long-established reputation for fairness and justice in this most volatile and dangerous region of the world" – the Middle East. That Canada does not deserve to be elected to the UN Security Council in 2011-12.
There was a lot more to Fowler's devastating critique of Canada's foreign policy, which he said is being held hostage to vested domestic political interests. For example, Liberals have mollycoddled the supporters of Tamil Tigers. And politicians of all stripes have rubbed shoulders with those B.C. Sikhs who venerate the terrorists of the 1985 Air India bombing, he said.
Fowler, 64, was an adviser to Pierre Trudeau's global peace mission; foreign policy adviser to John Turner and Brian Mulroney; a former deputy minister of defence (during the 1993 Somalia scandal when Canadian soldiers tortured and killed Somali civilians); and Canada's longest serving ambassador to the UN (where he helped stop the sale of blood diamonds from Angola). In 2008, he was the UN's special envoy to Niger, where he was kidnapped by Al Qaeda and held captive for five months. He is, in Ignatieff's words, "a Canadian hero."
The hero opened by saying he was going to be "blunt and rude," and "not mince my words." He was and he didn't.
As if pre-empting this week's American pressure for Canada to stay on in Afghanistan, he said the mission remains muddled: "It is not clear what it is that we are trying to accomplish" there. More crucially: "We will not prevail in Afghanistan.
"We are simply not prepared to foot the massive price in blood and treasure, which it would take to effectively colonize Afghanistan and replace their culture with ours, for that seems to be what we seek, and the Taliban share that view.
"It is time to leave. Not a moment, not a life and not a dollar later."
On the Arab-Israeli conflict, we must "accept the reality and importance of the ironclad link between non-peace and continuing turmoil and volatility in the Middle East, on the one hand, and the rise and growing strength of international terrorism, on the other – terrorism which is inflaming fundamentalist Islamic diasporas through the world, including Canada ...
"When will we accept that one causes the other? What does it take to get that to sink in? It's there for all to see but it is apparently politically incorrect to draw attention to it.
"It seems that anybody who presumes to acknowledge this blindingly obvious linkage is immediately labelled anti-Semite ...
"I guess we are supposed to presume that the allure of jihad will inextricably dim, as Israel builds ever more settlements in illegally occupied territories in contravention of a myriad of international judgments, and hope that 10 million Palestinians will just forget about it and decide that being homeless and stateless and living for a fourth generation in impossibly squalid refugee camps is an outcome that they just better suck down and accept."
He added that the Mideast conflict is also fuelling jihadist movements across North Africa, especially in Somalia, Niger and Nigeria.
Without "generous, timely and focused assistance, there is a good chance of Al Qaeda realizing their dream of turning the northern part of Africa into a combination of Afghanistan under the Taliban, Darfur and the current murderous anarchy in Somalia."
"Allowing the situation between Israel and Palestine to continue to fester only makes this version of hell a more present and likely reality."
Fowler was echoing a growing consensus around the world, including lately in the United States, that the Israeli occupation, oppressive and endless, fuels terrorism and not just at Israel. It is one of the root causes of instability in the Middle East and hurts American national security interests.
Fowler acknowledged that Canada's pro-Israeli tilt began before Harper (under Paul Martin), but "the extent to which radical voices within domestic constituencies are being indulged over the past few years has been taken to a whole new level."
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment