Hiya Rob... Long time no read...

 -=> Quoting Rob Mccart to Peter Coggon <=-

 RM> On the basic idea of us being in that war I agree that we either
 RM> should not be there or should not be there in the capacity that
 RM> we are. Harper wants us to turn into 'little America' and do
 RM> most of what Bush wants us to do. 

  From what I got as an impression, I thought we were there due
to a threat to NATO.   If a member country is threatened the
rest follow in help..or something...so we might end in Iraq too

Oh dear...I pray not for this.

 RM> I believe the only reason we
 RM> are not in Iraq is because Harper wants to put out the impression
 RM> that he's not in Bush's pocket but why suddenly after many decades
 RM> of offering our services as Peace Keepers are we suddenly thrust
 RM> into a shooting war? Granted we've lost people attempting to keep
 RM> the peace as well but our policy was not to play the world's
 RM> police force, but to try to help stabalize a region after the
 RM> fighting is finished, often a longer and more thankless job.

Yes...agreed, the lads face the anger and landmines too and other
issues with great poise.   The memorys of a UN obersavation tower
being bombed by both sides comes to mind.

 RM> And Canada has always been there when the war was really one we
 RM> had an interest in. I'm not saying we should never fight, but
 RM> we should choose our battles. I think we could throw soldiers
 RM> into Iraq and Afghanistan forever and never make a significant
 RM> difference. It's been tried over and over for hundreds of years.

My decendent wrote a book on those areas, as he was assigned to 
a mission there in the 1870s to install telegraph which was a 
joint project of those governments and England at the time.

His book reads like a soldier's diary of today...same issues.

 RM> At most we should be offering to train their people, maybe even
 RM> train them HERE where they can learn how to protect their own
 RM> country without getting killed before they know how to be soldiers.

Yes ... I remember the airforces of some countrys come here, so
it would be a safer place to train here, then face on the job
training there where they are being gunned down.

 RM> Trade the legitimate government arms for oil and let them fight
 RM> their own war, something they seem reluctant to do.

Yes ...

 RM> You'd think if they had any intention of getting the country
 RM> under control themselves they'd be trying to throw us out by now,
 RM> not begging us to stay for many more years.

Makes you wonder whom is running the place?   But they are in chaos.

 RM> I honestly think this whole thing is just to shore up Harper's
 RM> image. He wants to be 'significant' in the world like the U.S.
 RM> President is, which means he has no idea how appeciated Canada
 RM> is in the world. He, like Bush, is just making more enemies out
 RM> there now. Damaging our reputation to try to make himself seem more
 RM> globally important and using the lives of our soldiers to do it.

I still want an immediate vote in the Parliament on all this, and
I never want to see a decison taken like this again by anyone
in the PMO  .   This habit has to stop.
Parliament is where decisions are decided.

 RM> Briefly, regarding the election reform issues you mentioned:

They only apply, from what I hear to Ontario.  They must pass by
60% ... and I have other questions now about the non-party 
MPPs who'll be into the taxpayers for their wages.

 RM> I think the proposed new system will make it much more likely we
 RM> will be electing a Prime Minister who is a 'Lame Duck', much like
 RM> they occasionally end up with in the USA elections, who can't get
 RM> anything done because he doesn't have enough support in parliament.
 RM> This is far MORE likley to happen here where we have 3 or 4 major
 RM> parties as opposed to the 2 they have south of the border.
 RM> The only time the gov't will function fully is when they have
 RM> enough voter support from both parts of the ballot and, in that
 RM> case, they'd have had a majority under the old system anyways.
 RM> I believe all we will be doing is making it far more likely
 RM> that the system will end up functioning like a minority gov't,
 RM> (in other words hardly at all) far more often than it does now.

  The good thing about minority is that it historical functions
better then a majority.   Real decisions are taken by political
thinks that represent the working and business communitys.

As for federal.    I am again lost with no one to vote for.
I think, and it seems the PQ will send us to the polls this
October or sometime near....I will join the 60-70% who don't
vote.

I don't like this, but then I am fedup voting and having my 
candidate not carry out why I voted for him.   Breach of
Contract..or whatever....I want a referendum to remove him
or her if they fail or switch in a decison they made to
me to get their vote.   My vote is my contract of support
of them for certain reasons, and if they fail or say no
then I want a way to remove them.

Aaah Democracy is so fragile ....  Too bad.

Thanks Rob for posting.   Good to see you still lurking here

Peter

... * Anything you say will be misquoted and used against you.
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