Yesterday the House of Commons unanimously approved Canada's participation in the ongoing no fly zone over Libya mission. Unanimously. Everybody's in. Tory, Bloc, Liberal & NDP.
Approval wasn't automatic. Questions were asked. According to the G&M, the opposition asked when the mission would end, what would constitute success and what the whole thing would cost. Apparently satisfied when the government couldn't answer even one of those questions, they all stood up on their hind legs, let out a manly "Hurrah" and voted to endorse the mission that, plainly, no one understands.
And that, kids, is what has gone so seriously wrong with your Parliament, the whole rotten shebang. Meanwhile the so-called 'community of nations' that is supposedly backing this adventure is flying apart like a mobile home in a tornado. The Arab League, the club of supposedly friendly dictators, is vascillating. The African Union is flatly opposed to our mission. So are key NATO partners Germany and Turkey. China is against us, apparently India is too. The Russians are split - Medvedev for us, Putin agin. What's left? A bunch of white Christians which, in Arab parlance, translates into "Crusaders."
Oh well, at least the New Democrats and Liberals are on side. Brilliant.
What opposition? There does not seem to be any opposition. They're passenger in the same Titanic.
ReplyDeleteAt least in US some congressmen are speaking against Obama. Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich actually has asked for Obama's impeachment as Obama did not seek Congress's approval before going to war. It looks very messy.
The debate was a take-note debate in committee of the whole on the motion "That this committee take note of the United Nations Security Council resolution concerning Libya". After that debate adjourned, the gov't tabled a government motion that was backed unanimously. It included clauses that 2 committees (Foreign Affairs and National Defence) be kept seized of how the mission was going, and that if it looks like it will last more than 3 months, the gov't has to seek the consent of the House for any extension.
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Thanks for the info RC but it doesn't change my opinion of the House. When I watched how glibly they extended the Afghan mission to 2011 without asking any of the essential questions it was obvious that rank politics trumped everything else with these characters. Please tell me their actions would have been the same had their not been an election looming. Please?
ReplyDeleteYeay! More pandering for the elections....
ReplyDeleteI really hope to meet some assmonkeys on the campaign trail to either kick them in the nads or.... nah, I'll just kick them in the nads and let them try to figure it out...