Engaging Hamas

George Bush doesn't get it, neither does Olmert. Hamas is the duly elected governing party of the Palestinian people. It's not Fatah and Abbas. They lost the election, Hamas won.

Hamas isn't a very likable outfit. It is, however, the chosen voice of a radicalized population. If we could ever get past idiots like Bush and Olmert, we might also find that Hamas could, possibly, be the key to easing the radical nature of the Palestinian people.

Bush ought to just back out of this thing anyway. He's been revealed as a blatant manipulator who co-opted Abbas against the will of the Palestinian people, sparking a bloody civil war in the result.

Somebody else needs to step in - and I mean step in with troops. It has to be a coalition of countries that can still be seen, on both sides, as unbiased. That isn't going to be easy, both sides embracing the delusional "you're either with me or against me" philosophy that's worked so well for George w. Bush. Since we probably won't satisfy either of them, the UN will have to ensure that it sets the bar high and satisfies itself.

Next step. Option A. Back to the pre-1967 borders and I mean back. One big 5-year plan to remove all Israeli settlement beyond its pre-1967 borders, everything. Out, gone. Jerusalem either a free city or partitioned. Full compensation for Arabs forced out post 1949 which can be offset by the value of Israeli-owned assets left behind in Palestinian territory. Agreement to guarantee sharing of freshwater resources situated in the West Bank. Full recognition of Israel and full trade rights with the Arab nations. Aid to Israel to help in accommodating relocated settlers. Then, a 10-mile wide demilitarized zone along the Israeli-Palestinian borders.

Or

Option B. A one-state solution. Full citizenship for every Palestinian living within the combined Israel-Palestinian state. Full voting rights, human rights and all other political freedoms.

Israel gets to choose.

Option A would be the only practical solution for Israel. The single state option wouldn't work demographically. The Palestinians would soon gain an ethnic majority that would translate into electoral control. To retain Jewish political control, Palestinians would have to be disenfranchised in a form of apartheid. Unacceptable, flat out.

Give the Palestinian people something to work for, something to build, instead of always leaving them with just something to fight for. We've had that experiment for half a century and have seen how well it's worked. You want to eliminate radicalism? That's where you begin. Give them their own country, give them a Marshall Plan that floods them with aid to build that place into something worth having as quickly as possible, and you'll have not just a roadmap but the road itself.

You can't get this started until you acknowledge the democratically elected leaders of the Palestinians, no matter how distasteful you may find that. If you want to see the face of the Palestinian leadership, don't look at them, look a decade or two beyond them and then start creating the opportunity for that future, progressive leadership to emerge and take hold.

Or not. You can always go back and ship over more boatloads of clusterbombs and attack jets because, surely, you just need a few more of them to solve the problem, just a few more.

TAR SANDS TRIUMPH!

Yes! A setback for the Oil Patch, finally.

A Federal Court justice has put Imperial Oil's Kearl tar sands project on hold, ordering the company to explain how it concluded that intensity-based targets will reduce the potentially damaging effects of the project's greenhouse gas emissions to a level of insignificance.

Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer obviously wasn't impressed with Esso's hogwash. From The Edmonton Journal:

"The evidence shows that intensity-based targets place limits on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per barrel of bitumen produced. The absolute amount of greenhouse gas pollution from oil sands development will continue to rise under intensity-based targets because of the planned increase in total production of bitumen. The [environmental assessment] panel dismissed as insignificant the greenhouse gas emissions without any rationale as to why the intensity-based mitigation would be effective to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 800,000 passenger vehicles, to a level of insignificance."

Counsel representing the environmentalist groups who opposed Imperial were more than pleased with the result:

It sends a clear message that environmental assessments must be open, honest and transparent, said Sean Nixon, a lawyer for Ecojustice, formerly called the Sierra Legal Defence Fund.

Ecojustice represented the Pembina Institute, the Sierra Club of Canada, the Prairie Acid Rain Coalition and the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta.

"It will be interesting to see if the panel can explain in a rational way how intensity-based measures can lessen the impact of greenhouse gas emissions," Nixon said.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=46586a70-7589-4ee7-81b6-27e497fe0413&k=4625

Louise Arbour to Step Down?

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Canadian Louise Arbour, is expected to resign soon after four contentious years in the post.

The former Supreme Court justice has been known for her clashes with the Bush regime over the Iraq war, the death penalty and American excesses in its "war on terror." From the Washington Post:

Arbour, "...said the U.S.-led counterterrorism struggle has set back the cause of human rights by "decades" and has exacerbated a "profound divide" between the United States, its Western allies and the developing world. "The war on terror has inflicted a very serious setback for the international human rights agenda," she said."

Arbour, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor who secured the indictment of the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, said that bedrock principles once taken for granted -- including the prohibition against torture -- have been eroded, and that what she considers Washington's excesses have undercut her efforts to crusade for human rights, particularly in places where political repression is greatest.

Human rights advocates largely praised Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice, as a tough, principled lawyer who has offered the United Nations' most forceful critique of the United States' use of harsh interrogation techniques and the transfer of suspects to countries where they stand a chance of being tortured. They note that she has done more to expand the presence of U.N. rights monitors around the world, making reports on abuses from Baghdad to Katmandu routine.

But she has also been a lightning rod for American conservatives, including the former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, who scolded her in 2005 for using Human Rights Day to criticize U.S. anti-terrorism tactics instead of highlighting rights abuses by countries such as Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe. Even supporters say she has trod lightly over abuses by some of the most powerful U.N. members, including China and Russia, leaving the United Nations increasingly silent on some of the world's most pressing human rights issues."

Needless to say her rumoured resignation will be welcome news to Washington and to human rights abusers worldwide. There's one Canadian we can all be very proud of. This country would do well with a lot more Arbours and a lot fewer like Harper, Levant and Flanagan.

Could al Sadr Swing the American Election?

In a few months we should have a good idea of the role Muqtada al Sadr and his Mahdi army intend to play in the American presidential election.

My guess is that, should McCain emerge as a clear favourite, the Shiite militias will take to the streets declaring open season on American forces. There have been recent reports that the Sunni militias, those the Americans armed to take on al-Qaeda, may also be planning to turn on the US forces.

Why? To restore Americans to a state of heightened fatigue to the war without end in Iraq. Neither the Shia nor the Sunni see any long-term advantage in a protracted American presence in their country. The Sunni are worried that the Shiite government and security services are getting too entrenched, backed by the U.S. and Iran alike. The Shia likewise view America's rearming of the Sunni militias with fear and distrust.

A big reason behind John McCain's popularity is a belief that Bush's "surge" is working which leaves Americans feeling more optimistic about the Iraq war. Low US casualty rates have created an illusion of success. McCain's platform of late has been to finish it up and leave victorious.

That impression works for the Iraqis if a Democrat wins, especially Obama. It's in their interests to make conditions seem peaceful enough for a President to get on with extracting American forces.

If, however, they foresee an inevitable battle with American forces, better to engage that sooner when there's time for it to have an adverse impact on McCain before Americans go to the polls.

Iraqis on all sides are watching the rival campaigns unfold and weighing what outcome they want in November and just how to get it.

Hillary, Obama - Knock It Off

Today's editorial in the New York Times has some prudent advice that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should heed if the Democrats are to have any hope in defeating John McCain:

"...there is still a chance to take this campaign and elevate it, finally, to a serious debate about major issues. That is what American voters deserve. And that is what Democrats must do if they hope to break the Republican grip on the White House.

After eight damaging and divisive years there is certainly a lot that needs to be debated starting with President Bush's disastrous war, his tax cuts for the rich, regulatory incompetence and neglect, and unrelenting assaults on civil rights, civil liberties and the balance of powers in government.

In other words, something quite different than the schoolyard shoving contest we've witnessed over the last few weeks between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and their increasingly out-of-control "surrogates". Mrs. Clinton's camp continues to be responsible for most of the nastiness we've seen this primary season and there were signs they were drawing the wrong lesson from Tuesday's vote: that "red phone" ads and hard-ball tactics will win the day. Mr. Obama's team, meanwhile, increasingly acts as though this exercise in democracy should be a coronation, that his opponent should bow out of the room.

For Democrats, changing this dynamic is all the more urgent because Senator John McCain has now won the Republican nomination and visited the White House today to collect the rather dubious blessing of Mr. Bush's endorsement. Mr. McCain is now free to stand on the sidelines and enjoy the food fight, knowing that whoever wins the Democratic nomination will be weakened, and honing his attack for the fall."

Bush Drops a Huge One Right Smack in the Middle of His Road Map

America's all-time Moron in Chief has just sent his Middle East peace initiative up in flames. His administration's own credibility is utterly gone and so is that of Fatah stooge Mahmoud Abbas.

Vanity Fair has dropped a bombshell - after Palestinian elections that led to victory for Hamas, Bush, Rice and deputy national security advisor Elliot Abrams backed an armed uprising under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan that sparked a civil war in Gaza.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804

The Vanity Fair link keeps going down. You can also find the article here:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030508A.shtml

The report seems more than plausible and it'll be enough to turn the Palestinians against Abbas. If he gets out with his life, he'll be lucky. Abbas, with a well earned reputation for corruption, now stands exposed as an American operative to boot.

Bush has issued a blanket denial - as if he had any other choice - but the damage is done. There's no more room for pretending to be an honest broker. His turn at the Middle East Wheel of Fortune is over but the way it ended, mired in scandal, will be a fitting legacy for his entire administration.

H/T to Red Jenny

Clemency Sought for Kohail

Canada is going to bat for Mohamed Kohail, the young Canadian kid who faces beheading in Saudi Arabia.

Apparently Harpo has decided that his new policy on clemency interventions applies in this case. What that means is that Canada goes to Riyadh having concluded that their justice system stinks because, if it was a fair trial, we wouldn't intervene.

Now I've come to you asking for a favour for a condemned criminal because your justice system sucks. That's the double bind to Harpo's policy. When you ask for consideration you effectively tell the only guy who can give it that you think he's a shit. That might not always sit well, don't you think?

Schreiber/Mulroney Dog & Pony Show Proceeds

Having dodged a bullet at the Commons ethics committee, Brian Mulroney was praying that the public inquiry into his nefarious dealings with KH Schreiber might somehow be called off.

Sorry, dude, it's on. Justice min Nicholson says it's going ahead and, better yet, Schreiber gets to stay here until it's finished.

Jeebus I wonder what you have to do to get intervenor status at that thing?

The Commons ethics committee didn't get very far but it did expose a whole pile of raw nerves , issues that the inquiry is going to look completely rigged if it chooses to avoid. That, I think, would be more damaging to the Tories than if they had called the whole thing off.

Enquiring minds want to know. Now where's that guy, Hladun?

Affordable Environmentalism

The OECD isn't some raving, left-wing outfit. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is the club for the wealthiest nations on the planet. That's why, when the OECD calls for urgent action to counter global warming, pollution and other environmental hazards, even you deniers ought to take time to listen.

Here's something else in the OECD's latest report - all these remedial measures are - wait for it - AFFORDABLE! You're not going to have to wind up living in a cave. From Reuters:

"Climate change is mankind's most important long-term challenge," OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria told Reuters after issuing a 520-page Environmental Outlook in Oslo.

The 30-nation OECD said possible environmental safeguards might slow world growth by just 0.03 percent a year -- meaning that by 2030 the global economy would be 97 percent bigger than in 2005 instead of almost 99 percent larger with no measures."

"Solutions are available, they are achievable and they are affordable," Gurria told a news conference. "The consequences and costs of inaction ... would be much higher."

"If we want to avoid irreversible damage to our environment ... we'd better start working right away," he said.

http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/32259

Too Smart For Our Own Damn Good

Canadians are academically top-heavy and, unless we change that, it'll cost us.

A report in today's Toronto Star notes that Canada ranks #1 as having the greatest percentage of its working force with a college or university education.

"The latest census data shows that Canada stands first in the developed world in the proportion of people who hold credentials from either college or university – 48 per cent, compared with 39 per cent in the U.S. or 32 per cent in Australia.

The data also shows Canadian women outnumber men at university, more than half of immigrants have a university degree compared with 20 per cent of Canadians born here, one in five post-secondary grads has taken a business or marketing-related course – but only 10 per cent of young adults hold a certificate in a skilled trade.

Too, the census reveals a young generation studying different fields than their parents – more chefs than mechanical repair, for instance, more computers than construction, more transportation than health services."

This is all well and good until your toilet backs up or you need a machinist or some other skilled trade. There we're in trouble. Canada is facing a critical shortage of skilled tradesmen (& women).

From welding to drywalling there are not enough young people entering our trades.

Nothing new to this story. It's a problem that's beset some sectors of industry since the 60's.

My Dad was in the specialty steel business in Ontario. Most of his customers were tool and die companies working for the automotive and aeronautical industries. Those companies were dependent on highly skilled machinists and tool makers but there were never enough.

The Soviets actually helped ease Canada's problem. Their invasion of Hungary in '56 and Czechoslovakia in '63 brought quite a few highly skilled tradesmen to Canada as refugees. By the time the 70's rolled around, a lot of them owned their own, highly profitable tool and die companies. After they were absorbed, however, the trade shortage problem returned.

Why? A major reason was that the apprenticeship process wasn't sufficiently attractive to draw newcomers. Kids could earn a lot more taking an unskilled factory job than they would ever receive during their years as an apprentice.

Another problem is our public attitude to labour of any sort. We're snobs, plain and simple, and before long we may come to regret our snobbery.

When I entered law school I was surprised at how many of my classmates admitted they were there largely due to their parents. Some had absolutely been groomed for it from childhood. It was mandated.

The upshot? We're awash in lawyers and bereft of machinists. Make sense? Of course not.

From one end of this country to the other we need to change all this and, while government and the private sector need to do a lot more, so do we as individuals and, especially, as parents. Remember, Jesus was a carpenter.

The Guardian is Going Straight to Hell

They've really done it this time. The Guardian has shown itself delightfully blasphemous in an article today suggesting that Moses (the one and only) was stoned out of his gourd when he went up Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments:

An Israeli researcher is claiming in a study published this week the prophet may have been stoned when he set the Ten Commandments in stone.

According to Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, psychedelic drugs formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times.

Writing in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy, he says concoctions based on the bark of the acacia tree, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, contain the same molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

"The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an altered state of awareness," writes Shanon. "In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings."

References in the Bible where people "see" sounds, is another "classic phenomenon", he said, citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see" music.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/05/religion.israelandthepalestinians

A Failing Strategy in the War on Drugs

The United Nations International Narcotics Control Board releases its annual report today warning that major drug cartels are operating with virtual impunity because nations are wasting their efforts focusing on small-time users instead.

From The Guardian:

"According to the 127-page annual report from the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), governments need to make greater efforts to freeze traffickers' assets, improve access to drug treatment programmes and expand the range of non-custodial sentences available for convicted users.
The main findings were:

The emergence of new smuggling routes, in particular cocaine from South America being stockpiled and repackaged in west Africa before entering Europe.

Increased cultivation of coca bushes - from which cocaine is derived - in Peru and Bolivia as crop eradication programmes reduce production in Colombia.

A 17% increase in illicit opium poppy cultivation during 2007 in Afghanistan. The country now accounts for 93% of the global market in opiates.

It added: "Some countries still spend disproportionate effort in targeting low-level offenders and drug users, as compared to the more pressing issues of identifying, dismantling and punishing those who control or organise major drug trafficking activities.

"Many states impose unconditional imprisonment of drug abusers for lesser offences, such as possession or purchase of drugs for personal use and these typically make up a significant proportion of growing prison populations in some countries. There is no universal 'moral instinct' when it comes to punishment for less serious cases."

The report does, however, criticize countries that condone drug use of any form, including medical marijuana. Canada is specifically mentioned for providing "safer crack kits" which, I have to admit, I know absolutely nothing about.

The UN Drug Czar, whose name escapes me at the moment, is fiercely opposed to any and all forms of drug use and production regardless of the circumstances. In Afghanistan, for example, he wants the entire opium crop wiped out immediately without the slightest regard to the implications that might have for the counterinsurgency war being waged. It's that lack of realism and inflexibility that probably ensures this report will be left to gather dust.

Has Washington Overplayed Its Hand in South America?

Colombia has been called the "Israel of South America" by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Both countries, claims Chavez, are propped up by the United States and tend to invade their neighbours, a reference to Colombia's recent incursion into Ecuador to attack FARC guerrillas.

Mexico recently joined Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru, among others, in condemning Colombia. Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa is now in Brazil for meetings with president da Silva before heading to Venezuela for a meeting with Chavez.

Colombia is increasingly coming to be seen as America's proxy in South America and, as such, faces isolation within its own region.

Bush has entered the fray, urging Congress to set aside its concerns about Colombian human rights violations to push through a new US/Colombia trade deal. If he overplays his hand he risks legitimizing Chavez among moderate South American states and, in the process, wounding American influence in that region.

Is the Monroe Doctrine finally dead meat?

The Next President of the United States of America

It's John McCain or, perhaps, John w. McSame.

A convincing case for that was made by the TV pundits during last night's primaries coverage. The scenario sees Clinton and Obama battle it out in an increasingly bitter contest that alienates a lot of the eventual loser's followers and disenchants independents.

McCain is already targeting the middle and the independents. He goes for a running mate who's a real "fire'n brimstone" type to appease the evangelical Republican base and uses the remaining nine months to wage a powerful campaign of moderation.

Clinton and Obama grind each other down until just about nobody wants either of them any more. Clinton prevails, emerging to find herself with the "Over 60" Democrats and having to share what were blue collar Dems with McCain. The youth vote and "Latte" crowd stay home and sulk.

Republicans combine with independents and Dems who've shown they won't vote for Hillary no matter what, costing the Democrats their tenuous hold on Congress to boot.

Game, set and match - McCain. Four More Wars, Four More Wars!

A Survey For All You Young Libs, Dippers, Progressives

This survey is directed specifically to those of you who are young enough that you are still planning or might possibly want to have children. I really want to hear from you women.

Take a quick read on the post below about "reproductive outsourcing." It's about a growing, surrogate mother industry in India. The idea is that, for a fee of about $25-thousand, a fine, fit young woman in India will furnish a child, either by artificial insemination or by embryo implantation.

I think back to my days as a young professional and remember those of us who went through the whole childbearing process. Mom leaves work, gets fat, goes through the ordeals of childbirth, etc., etc. Been there, done that - twice and I still can't understand what a woman has to be to get through it.

However, what if having kids was just a function of extracting the genetic material from each parent, tossing together an embryo and having it frozen and shipped to India to be baked by an accomodating woman for 25 Gs? 9-months later and you get back a genetically-correct offspring with no fuss, no muss, no career dislocation, no physical infirmity, nothing save for a small dent in the savings account.

Would you do it? Would you be tempted by the possibility? With the gap between rich and poor growing wider by the day and the desperate plight being inflicted upon the poorest, baby bakeries seem to be a sure thing.

What do you think?

If you're past the point where this is even relevant your opinion still is. Simply identify yourself by the "past it" tag and weigh in.

Cheers all.

Pee Wee Herman's Second Cousin Twice Removed?

Maybe it's just me.

Hillary's Poison Pill

Hillary Clinton is flush with political savvy. She's no fool. That's why she had to know the potential damage she was causing the Democratic Party with her powerful, desperate and pathetic television ad dramatically depicting a ringing telephone in the middle of the night with a vulnerable sleeping baby backdrop. The message was "don't trust Obama to have the faintest clue what to do when the phone rings in the middle of the night to inform him of a grave national emergency that places that little baby's life in jeopardy."

Hillary knew that it would get results, for her, but she also had to know that, if it didn't work for her, it would get even better results for the Republican nominee, John McCain, should Obama win the Democratic Party's nomination.

If Hillary is warning Americans not to trust Obama in a crisis, imagine what McCain can - and will - do with that. If McCain has any sense of fair play he ought to ask Hillary to send him the bill she got for that ad.

Poison pills are subterfuge generally seen in corporate resolutions and shareholder agreements designed to thwart hostile takeovers or keep angry creditors at bay. Clinton didn't have to weaken her party's future that way. But she did. Why she may yet become the Republican poster girl of 2008.

AdBusters Trashed by Canadian Broadcasters

All they wanted was to be able to buy airtime to express their concerns - 30 seconds here, 30 seconds there. They wanted to speak to the Canadian people in the same forum that McCain uses to flog its crappy frozen pizzas. Canada's television broadcasters - the outfits who get licensed to use the public (your and my) airwaves said "no." So AdBusters took them to court - and lost.

The AdBusters press release explains it this way:

"It's outrageous that the fast food, oil and automobile industries can buy as much TV time as they want in order to promote their agendas, but citizens are not allowed to talk back," said Adbusters Editor-in-Chief Kalle Lasn in response to the ruling. "Canadian democracy will not work properly until we the people have the same right to buy airtime as corporations do."

The rejected Adbusters ads pointed out that over 50 percent of the calories in a Big Mac come from fat, called for an end to the age of the automobile, and promoted Buy Nothing Day. While Court Justice William Ehrcke ruled that private broadcasters have the right to run whatever ads they like, Adbusters feels the case raises some troubling questions."

Outrageous? Actually I think they're right. Unless there's something offensive, dishonest or inciteful in an advertisement or public service message, why should a television network - using our public property - be allowed to refuse to run it provided they're paid the standard rate for their (our) airtime?

If McDonald's is vulnerable to an ad pointing out, truthfully, that half the calories in a Big Mac come from fat, why should a paying customer be refused the opportunity to express that point?

In our progressively dumbed down society, television is becoming the media for communication, most of it programmed to the lowest common denominator. Still, that is where you have to go if you want to reach the populace and the folks who spew out the Big Macs and Cadillac Escalades know it. Should they be able to use their advertising clout to monopolize one of the most important forms of public property, the airwaves? If so, why?

Debunking Global Warming

Trust it to come from the National Spot. The Spot reprinted a "special report" that appeared in the Financial Spot from Big Tobacco, Big Oil shill Fred Singer entitled "The Case Against Global Warming." It's part of the swill coming out of this week's International Conference on Climate Change in New York sponsored by the Heartland Institute which doesn't sound remotely like what it is, a front group for the fossil fuel industry.

Singer posits all the old garbage about causes of global warming. Naturally the Spot carefully ensures that Singer's background is nowhere to be found in his unchallenged and astonishingly informative scientific assessment.

Singer's new band, that calls itself the Non-Governmental International Panel on Climate Change (AKA the International Fossil Fuel Industry Panel on Climate Change) issued a bold open letter to UN Secretary General Bam urging that the world abandon the futile fight against greenhouse gas emissions and instead focus on adapting to the inevitable warming. The letter was signed by a host of impressive sounding folks, many of whom are directly linked to the fossil fuel industry, the denialist movement or far right wing think tanks including these jokers:

Warren Anderson, US(co-author of Fire and Ice)

Dennis Avery, US(director of the Center for Global Food Issues, Hudson Institute)

Franco Battaglia, Italy(professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Modena)

Robert Carter, Australia(”Professor Carter, whose background is in marine geology, appears to have little, if any, standing in the Australian climate science community;” well known climate change skeptic)

Richard Courtney, UK(Technical Editor for CoalTrans International (journal of the international coal trading industry), was a Senior Material Scientist of the National Coal Board and a Science and Technology spokesman of the British Association of Colliery Management)

Joseph d’Aleo, US(retired meteorologist & well known climate change skeptic)

Fred Goldberg, Sweden(associate professor at the Royal School of Technology in Stockholm)

Vincent Gray, New Zealand(founding member New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, which has the stated aim of “refuting what it believes are unfounded claims about anthropogenic (man-made) global warming.”)

Klaus Heiss, Austria(economist, Science & Environmental Policy Project)

Craig Idso, US(founder and chairman of the board of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, funded by Western Fuels and Exxon Mobil)

Zbigniew Jaworowski, Poland(professor at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw & global warming skeptic)

Olavi Karner, Estonia(Tartu Observatory)

Madhav Khandekar, Canada(retired Environment Canada meteorologist, on the scientific advisory board of Friends of Science, published in Energy & Environment)

William Kininmonth, Australia(past head of head of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology’s National Climate Centre, known Australian climate change skeptic; listed as “Director of the Australasian Climate Research Institute,” but the Institute is listed as simply a trading name for “Kininmonth, William Robert”, and is based at his private residence)

Hans Labohm, Netherlands(economist, author of Man-Made Global Warming: Uravelling a Dogma)

Christopher Monckton, UK(we all know his lardship; connected with the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI), formerly the Frontiers of Freedom’s Center for Science and Public Policy, which promotes the views of global warming skeptics)

Lubos Motl, Czech Republic(theoretical physicist who works on string theory and conceptual problems of quantum gravity)

Tom Segalstadt, Norway(head of the Geological Museum within the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo, IPCC reviewer)

S. Fred Singer, US(Whom we also all know; former space scientist and government scientific administrator, runs the Science and Environmental Policy Project and has been connected with numerous conservative think tanks, including Cato, American Enterprise Institute, and of course, the tobacco industry)

Dick Thoenes, Netherlands(emeritus professor of chemical engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, co-author of Man-Made Global Warming: Uravelling a Dogma)

Anton Uriarte, Spain(professor of Physical Geography at the University of the Basque Country

Gerd Weber, Germany(works for the ‘Gesamtverband des Deutschen Steinkohlenbergbaus’ (Association of German coal producers)

C'mon. The Association of German Coal Producers, Big Tobacco, the American Enterprise Institute, one-man "Institutes", Friends of Science, climate change outfits funded by Exxon, the British Association of Colliery Management? None of these connections, of course, are relevant to the National Spot. They would only confuse its readers.

Go Green Now, Or Wait? Lead or Follow?

Decisions, decisions. I do some of the easy green things already - mini-flourescents and LEDs; restricted driving with small, fuel-efficient car; motorcycle when practical; small house kept on cool; new windows - that sort of thing.

I do these things but I'm torn about whether it really matters? I'd like to take a vacation too but then there's the issue of fossil fuel consumption and jet engine emissions and so on. If two or three percent of the population skips those things, will it make the slightest difference?

I do believe in athropogenic global warming, not the slightest doubt. I also am convinced that there are several, climate change tipping points that we may not keep ourselves from reaching.

A year and a bit ago I wrote that there are several solutions to global warming, the best of which slipped through our fingers in the 60's before we knew any better. There are today's solutions which aren't nearly as good but they too are slipping away fast. Then there are tomorrow's solutions which are going to be a lot more miserable yet. Sooner or later we'll have to opt to solve the problem and, when we do, we'll have to accept whatever options remain to us at that time.

But, in the meantime, what do we do as individuals? Do we transform ourselves into environmental monks or is a limited measure of conservation and restraint enough?

What do you think?

Arms Race Update - The Sizzler

Russia built them, China has them and Iran may have them soon.

The Sizzler, Russia's new anti-ship missile is said to be the best in the world and it's got the US Navy flummoxed.

"This is a carrier-destroying weapon,'' said Orville Hanson, who evaluated weapons systems for 38 years with the Navy. "That's its purpose.''

"Take out the carriers'' and China" can walk into Taiwan,'' he said. China bought the missiles in 2002 along with eight diesel submarines designed to fire it, according to Office of Naval Intelligence spokesman Robert Althage.

If Iran does get its hands on the Sizzler it could feasibly lock down the Persian Gulf and disrupt the world's oil supply.

That's What You Get For Lovin' Me

It's an old Gordon Lightfoot song but it could well double as the anthem for Canada's softwood lumber capitulation, er treaty, with the United States.

To buy peace, we let the US government keep a big hunk of the illegal duties it levied on Canadian softwood imports, money that was then handed over to the US lumber industry to fund further legal attacks on us.

So the Harper/Emerson masterstroke agreement of 2006, the one where we supposedly bought seven years of peace, lasted one year before the Americans made their move.

That followed the procedures set out in the deal, arbitration first and then submission of the dispute to a court in London. Okay. The court came out, ruling in favour of BC and Alberta but finding that eastern producers were in violation of the terms.

Being a law-abiding country, Emerson wasted no time in saying Canada would accept the ruling which the treaty makes binding. So what do the Americans have to say? You got it, they won't say they'll accept the "binding" decision. Instead the US trade reps said they'll consult the "stakeholders," the American lumber companies that brought the attack funded by Canadian plunder.

And if they don't agree to their binding obligations? Well they're not quite so binding as we thought. Seems the US can bail out of the deal whenever they like. Would somebody remind me why the hell we're in Afghanistan anyway?

They Call It "Reproductive Outsourcing"

A fascinating item in the International Herald Tribune about a new and rapidly expanding industry in India - surrogate motherhood.

India, widely known for the destination of a variety of outsourced jobs is now fielding a corps of housewives available for artificial insemination - at bargain prices!

"Reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding enterprise in India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe in recent months, as word spreads of India's combination of skilled medical professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.

"Commercial surrogacy, which is banned in some European countries and subject to a wide spectrum of regulation in U.S. states, was legalized in India in 2002. The cost of the medical procedures, air tickets and hotels for two trips to India (one for the fertilization and a second to collect the baby) comes to around $25,000, roughly a third of the typical price in the United States."

"Under guidelines issued by the Indian Medical Council, surrogate mothers sign away all their rights to the child. In cases where the surrogate provides a womb for an embryo formed from the sperm and egg of the prospective parents, it is only the names of these genetic parents that appear on the birth certificate. If an egg donor is involved, her name does not appear on the document, either; only that of the father."

There are so many moral and ethical issues that leap out from this and they'll never, ever come up for serious consideration. Yes, your own baby and for less than the price of a Volkswagen!

Arm's Race Update

This is, unfortunately, becoming a weekly feature.

The big news this week is the big money being thrown into rearmament by India and by China.

To the alarm of Pakistan, India has increased its military budget by 7.8% for the coming year. It's also in the process of purchasing and license-producing a total force of 1,500 Russian T-80 main battle tanks which should give it the biggest armoured force in Asia, perhaps anywhere.

China, not to be outdone, is bumping its military spending 18% this year. From BBC:

"Just before the announcement, the US released a report criticising China's military spending, and voicing concern over advances in space and cyberspace.

China rejected the Pentagon report as a "serious distortion of facts" that could harm its relations with the US.

"It breaks international norms... We do not pose a threat to any country. The US should drop its Cold War mentality," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the report, Washington claimed that the real Chinese defence budget for 2007 was at least double the stated amount. "

This is rich, coming from the Pentagon. Bush has increased the Pentagon's budget by 11% for 2008, from $432 to $481-billion (exclusive of War on Terror costs) and the amount of that increase almost equals China's entire expanded military budget which will total around $59-billion.

The Chinese military expansion, however, is serious. McClatchey Newspapers reports that, "...China has aggressively expanded its navy to include 57 attack submarines, including eight equipped with a fierce Russian supersonic missile, known as a “Sizzler,” that some experts consider the finest anti-ship missile in existence."

I know I keep harping on this but Western leaders have to get off their arses and begin demanding that Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Mumbai, Tokyo and the Koreas knock this off, now. This is serious, people. We can't afford to let it go unnoticed, unmentioned.

Save the Planet - Eat Whales

That little bit of despicable perversion comes from a Norwegian pro-whaling lobby, the High North Alliance.

Here's their thinking. They've done a survey that shows harpooning whales is environmentally less damaging than raising livestock. From the Environmental News Network:

"The survey, focused on whale boats' fuel use, showed that a kilo (2.2 lbs) of whale meat represented just 1.9 kilo (4.2 lbs) of greenhouse gases against 15.8 for beef, 6.4 for pork and 4.6 for chicken.

Greenhouse gas emissions caused by one meal of beef are the equivalent of eight meals of whale meat," the study said."

Now, what the Alliance's study overlooked is that the best environmental solution is actually to harpoon Norwegian whalers themselves. Not only is it cheap and effective, it eliminates your dinner's greenhouse gas emissions for decades. Hey Svend, get over here!

Now There's a Novel Approach - Strategy

This should get a lot of brass noses out of joint. An informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers is scheduled for this week. At the meeting, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner "will express the need for the alliance to develop a true strategy in Afghanistan."

Hmm, a true strategy, why didn't we think of that before? Of course, Kouchner's true strategy will have to be wrapped around the addition of a few hundred French combat troops for eastern Afghanistan. Mr. Kouchner's true strategy probably overlooks the need for many thousands of additional combat troops but no matter.

Memo to the Big Cod. You're being outed by a Frenchman who says NATO generals have been screwing around over there these last six years without a "true strategy."

They'll Just Have to Find Some Other Way to Die

I know how callous and cynical that sounds but if you regularly read reports coming out of sub-Saharan Africa, news of an effective, cheap meningitis vaccine is a "one step forward, nine back" sort of thing.

The good news - a cheap and effective vaccine has been tested and will be available for that region in 2009. Unlike standard vaccines that cost $10-20 per dose, the new product can be produced for 40-cents per dose. That means that mass vaccinations can be achieved at $1 per patient. The vaccine has been found highly effective against the most common strain of meningitis found in 85% of infected Africans.

The new vaccine protects individuals for ten years instead of the two-year duration of the more expensive products. It is safe to be given to children under two and it works preventatively as well as therapeutically.

Now, if we can just find these people water, something to eat and maybe a patch of arable land...

Stelmach Wins Big - Puke

I don't care much for Alberta or for the Albortion people for that matter. I'm not surprised they returned their premier, Special Ed Stelmach, to power with one of the biggest majorities in decades.

What interests me is how the media and the pollsters got that one so wrong. They weren't just off, they were wrong, wrong, wrong. Might as well have used a dart board or a ouija board. Then again, judging by their accuracy maybe that's what they did.

So, Big Oil rules again and for the foreseeable future for that matter. And with Harpo pulling strings for Alberta in Ottawa, it's carte blanche for the Tar Sands. Great, just great.

Canadian Kid to be Beheaded by Saudis

Remember the name, Mohamed Kohail, you'll be hearing it a lot in the next couple of months.

The 16-year old has been convicted of murder in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to public beheading. He has 80-days in which to appeal his sentence.

Turns out it was a schoolyard brawl in which Kohail, came to aid of his brother, Sultan, after he was beset by a gang of a dozen boys, some allegedly armed, who claimed he'd insulted a girl. A punch was thrown and one of the gang. the girl's cousin, fell dead.

Kohail's family says he was often denied access to his lawyer and convicted in a bizarre trial that consisted of nine, 10-minute court sessions.

The Kohail family had gone to Saudi Arabia to attend a relative's wedding, apparently a protracted ritual that entails three ceremonies.

They Even Coined a Word For It - Foeticide

Foeticide, the deliberate aborting of female foetuses, has become common in India. Authorities estimate it leads to half a million abortions every year. Mom and dad want a boy, have an ultrasound, don't like what they see and - she's gone.

Now the Indian government is introducing a plan to pay poor families to keep the girls with cash benefits of up to 15,500 rupees or about $400. The government hopes to save 100,000 female children a year with the programme.

The British medical journal Lancet estimates that, over the past twenty years, as many as 10-million female foetuses may have been aborted out of a preference for sons.

Observers wonder if the plan will have much success as it's in the wealthier provinces and cities that the foeticide rate is highest.

Sorry folks, I'm definitely pro-choice but there is a line when it comes to opting for abortion to improve one's future economic security. Girls can take care of their parents too.

Jodi's Right

Dona Cadman looks a bit spinny at the moment, vouchsafing for the prospective boss on the strength of having looked into his eyes, but no matter.

There's endless debate over what happened and whether it was illegal and whether some Libs defamed Harpo by claiming he was in on it, but no matter.

What does matter is this. Jodi Cadman said it herself, it was an "indecent proposal." It was a truly indecent, utterly sleazy act to try to take advantage of a man just weeks away from death, a man about to leave a wife and child to an uncertain future.

It was indecent and, by his own admission, Harper knew of this indecency and did nothing to stop it when he could have. Harper was content to sit back and let his henchmen try to take advantage of a man's vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a moment of enormous peril.

Stephen Harper might not be a criminal but he's shown, beyond the slightest doubt, that he is a vile, loathesome creature utterly devoid of any shred of integrity or even decency. He's a moral reprobate, a huckster. He's a power-grabber, sneak thief and a theoconservative mandrake. Canada can do well without him and his kind.

(p.s. the "mandrake" reference - Mandrake is a powerful herb of the Nightshade family used for its anaesthetic and supposedly magical qualities. Closely related to the deadly Belladonna, Mandrake (like Harper) can cause hallucinations and delerium if ingested. According to folklore, the humanoid Mandrake root screams when it is pulled from the earth, and the human who hears it will go deaf, become insane, or in more extreme versions of the legend, drop dead)

Kicked In the Teeth

In Charlie Madrid's half century on this planet he sure hasn't learned much. Here are a couple of them:

If you want to kill the president of your country, best not to tell your ex-girlfriend. And, if the Los Angeles police later show up at your door and ask, "Do you want to kill the president?," it's not going to help you a lot to say "yes."

Madrid has been charged with charged with knowingly and willfully threatening to take the life of the president. It's kind of a weird offence, one that can land an American in a lot of trouble for simply thinking out loud.

According to Charlie's mum, he's just had a streak of bad luck lately. As if the breakup with Wanda O'Hickey-Way wasn't bad enough, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago. Then his job as a technician at a local radio station was cut back to part time and then some bastard stole his only means of transportation, his bicycle, off mom's front porch.

Said Rachel Madrid-Hall, "Sometimes life just kicks you in the teeth." Amen.

It sort of reminds me of Olde England where they had the offence of imagining the death of the king. A conviction for that in the Star Chamber could fetch you the full Braveheart - drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle, hanged but cut down while still alive, disembowled and then hitched up to the horses and quartered. Nasty folks these monarchs.

Connie Takes a Few Nips Before Entering Dog House

Faith, they say, can enable man to endure horrible ordeals.

Conrad Black, now inmate Black, is a man of faith - faith in God and even more faith in Himself.

Old 18330-424, as he's now known, has faith that his fraud convictions will be overturned and even has faith that he'll be out of jail in just a few months.

I don't think 424's faith is going to spring him nearly as fast as he might hope. The most serious conviction, the obstruction charge, is based on videotape of him removing boxes of documents from Hollinger's Toronto offices. It's going to take a heaping helping of Divine intervention to get that one set aside.

"A moron who actually seriously looks at this case sees that it is a crock and I expect it will ultimately be determined to be so," he said. That counld be so, Conrad, but I wouldn't count on the appellate judges being morons.

Hillary Storms Back

First it was her impressive appearance on Saturday Night Live. Tonight, on the eve of tomorrow's crucial primaries, she'll appear on The Daily Show.

Hillary Clinton, dubbed by The Daily Show as, "the first viable Presidential candidate with a working uterus," sure isn't giving up without a fight.

It's a bit late in the game but Hillary has shown that, when put in the spotlight, she can come across as utterly charming, funny and witty. Unfortunately it's a side of her not usually seen in her Ice Queen campaigning. I think her handlers have really let her down.

You would think the Clintons would know better. Remember how Bill defeated Bob Dole? It wasn't until he was defeated that Dole revealed his really human, endearing side.

The Yellow Dust Returns

It comes out of the Gobi Desert and sweeps down across Korea and parts of Japan every spring, causing scores of deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Schools close, high tech plants go into environmental lockdown, people don breathing masks as the Yellow Dust sweeps south out of China bearing its toxic sand.

What makes the dust lethal are the heavy metals and carcinogens such as dioxins picked up as it passes over China's industrial centres. Dry weather and heavy winds send millions of tons of the stuff southward from February until May.

South Korea says the Yellow Dust storms kill an average of 165-people annually and leave another 1.8-million sick.

What is Flaherty Playing At?

Sitting out here on Vancouver Island, I view Ottawa/Ontario politics with a degree of puzzlement. It's more than a degree, I just don't get it.

Now, as I understand it, Harpo's FinMin, Flaherty, is a recycled dud from the former Ontario government of Mike Harris, the outfit that surprised the good people of that province with a parting gift in the form of a $5-billion deficit.

There are certain things we all know. Globalization hasn't been good for North American manufacturing sector, this we know. Stephen Harper really gets off on playing Rovian wedge politics, this we know. Harpo can't stand Liberals, federally or provincially or even those who just show up at voting stations, this we know. SHarper's minions, that is to say his cabinet ministers, don't wipe their backsides without Steve's say so, this we know. Furious Leader has two eyes; one he uses to scan the country in search of carrion, the other he keeps focused on his home province and future energy superpower, Alberta, this we know.

So why is Harper using his trained chimp, Flaherty, to pick a fight with Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty? Is it because Harpo has been too busy defunding the federal government just as McGuinty has come, Oliver Twist style, asking for another bowl of gruel? Is that what this is all about? Does Harpo want to make Ontario voters believe their province's economic woes are their Liberal government's fault? What is it?

Now you know that a guy with a name like McGuinty who resembles nothing so much as a reincarnation of Ichabod Crane, doesn't come to power unless the outgoing bunch really screwed the pooch somewhere. The voters have to be some peed off to do that. Flaherty was, of course, a player in that reviled government so why, of all people, is Harpo using him to wage war on Ontario?

Sorry, I don't have any answers. Please enlighten me.

Warrants Issued for Tim Horton

An American bakery has reported the disappearance of its "nun bun," a cinammon bun said to bear a striking resemblance to the late, great, saint Mother Teresa.

Oh dear. If you fnd it, don't eat it. The damned thing is years old and would probably give you the trots on your way to the confessional.

The Paris Insurgency

Guerrilla war in the French capital? An ambush of police officers by a platoon-size force of masked gunmen sure sounds like just that.

The CBC reports that four police officers responded to a call about vandalism at a bakery in the suburb of Grigny, an immigrant enclave with a large Muslim population.

When they arrived they were met by a group of 30-people wearing hoods, some of them armed. They opened fire, hitting three of the officers in the face with buckshot and wounding the fourth in the legs with a combined blast of shotgun pellets and nails.

This isn't the first time Parisian police officers have been ambushed by armed gangs.

Is Harper Cracking Up?

Stephen Harper is going to sue Stephane Dion, Ignatieff and Goodale for defamation arising out of two articles published on the Liberal party website.

Well, if the Liberals needed something to keep the Cadman scandal front and centre in the public eye, our Furious Leader just served it up on a platter.

Apparently the articles, which I haven't read but will now, offend Stevie because they claim he knew about a plan to attempt to bribe Cadman to vote to bring down the Liberal government of Paul Martin.

“These malicious and reckless statements impugn the reputation of the Prime Minister and meant, and were understood to mean inter alia, that the Prime Minister knew of a bribe of a Member of Parliament and was an accomplice to that bribe.”

Oh Steve, say it isn't so. Harper's lawyers apparently claim that the Liberal articles suggest Harpo is, “dishonest, unethical, immoral and lack integrity.” Suggest? C'mon, we all know he's dishonest, unethical, immoral and lacks integrity. That's like whining that Dion alleges the sun will rise at dawn.

Well, there you have it. If Dion is smart, he'll play Harper's game because it's one that Harper won't win in the public's mind, no matter the outcome should it reach trial.

Within a couple of months the lawyers should be able to begin the Examinations for Discovery. Imagine Harpo, under oath, being put to discovery. Oh wait, wasn't there another Tory prime minister who sued for libel and had a difficult moment or two under discovery? Too bad Harper isn't taking Mulroney's calls any more.

Harper's Stealth War on National Government

That Stephen Harper took time to study Karl Rove's playbook is clear but the one chapter that really got his attention was the one devoted to "defunding" the central government.

The idea behind defunding government is to leave it so impoverished that it can no longer afford social programmes. When the Rove/Bush/Cheney regime seized power they faced the prospect of defunding a government with surpluses. That all changed on 9/11 - the surpluses were gone. However Bush acted as though they were still around, changing the fundamental nature of American taxation, cutting taxes for the most advantaged and waging multi-trillion dollar wars without end on borrowed money. In the process he's almost guaranteed a cataclysmic future for America's Social Security system and other entitlement programmes as his debt and deficit spending comes home to roost in the next administrations.

The only war Bush has succeeded at is the class war he has waged on his country's working and middle classes.

Stephen Harper has done a good job of defunding the Canadian government despite the restrictions of minority government. He did it by stealth, spending increases and tax cuts.

Harper's own Karl Rove, political strategist Tom Flanagan told Canadian Press the Harper "Conservatives are gradually "tightening the screws on the federal government," leaving more money in taxpayers' pockets and making it harder for Ottawa to spend.
To launch any big-ticket initiatives over the next few years a prime minister – whether Harper or a successor – would either need to risk political suicide or hope for an economic miracle.

That's because raising taxes, returning to a deficit or slashing existing programs could be the only ways to pay for new spending, barring an unexpected economic boom.

"They've gradually re-engineered the system. I'm quite impressed with it," said Flanagan, a political strategist who ran the 2004 Conservative campaign."

I'm not entirely convinced that Flanagan's crowing is valid. Repeated polls have shown Canadians to be a centrist, social-moderate bunch and, while the Harper measures will present a problem for future governments, I don't think they're insurmountable.

Without launching into my theories again, I will point out that Harper has an early 20th century approach to leadership that's going to become increasingly irrelevant in the face of the environmental, security and economic changes we'll be facing in the coming decades. Those realities, much more than Wilsonian ideology, will shape the relationship between the Canadian government and its people. Simply put, I think we're stronger than he is.

Clinton Asking Texans to Atone for Bush

Banking heavily on Tuesday's primary/caucuses in Texas, Hillary Clinton told Texans she's their chance to make up for giving America George w. Bush. That sounds pretty far out there, especially given that the people of Texas didn't decide either election and that Bush wasn't even born there. But, oh well, maybe it struck a chord.

In any event, Clinton appears to have pulled even to Obama in Texas in the latest polls. It's believed she still holds a small lead in Ohio. Whether she'll be positioned to get the big wins she needs, however, is far from certain.

Still, blaming Texans for Bush is a funny touch.

A British Soldier's View of the War on Terror

Leo Docherty is a former officer in Prince Harry's Household Division. A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, his service in Helmand led him to leave the army. In an opinion piece in The Independent, Docherty says the publicity over Harry shows that we have the wrong idea about the war in Afghanistan:

"In September 2006, British forces attacked and occupied what was until that point a thriving agricultural town. This means that the local farmers, who are poor cash-croppers exploited by opium barons, grow a great deal of poppy. But the British arrival, as in other towns across Helmand, brought nothing but military might – no means of development, no improvement in local living standards and no alternative to the poppy.

The most basic tenets of counter-insurgency were abandoned in the Army's haste to see action. Violence ensued as poppy farmers and opium traffickers teamed up with the Taliban to oppose the foreign occupiers. As the first British bombs fell, killing Afghan civilians, the battle for hearts and minds was lost.

The fighting rages still and opium production has soared to new heights. Overwhelming firepower (the kind that Harry co-ordinates) cannot resolve the fact that the British campaign in Helmand is illogical; we are trying to fight our way to winning hearts and minds and losing the trust of the population in doing so. Scores of civilians have been killed by British ordnance in Helmand. In 2007, at least 6,000 people died in the conflict across Afghanistan, of which approximately 1,400 were civilians. At least 500 of these deaths were directly attributable to Nato forces, mostly in air strikes; 89 British troops have been killed and 329 injured.

In 2003 my fellow officers and I knew the WMD issue was a blatant ruse, but we cared little. Scenting action we ignored the fact that we'd been told a pack of lies, and satisfied ourselves with the vague notion that it was all for the good. We simply craved active service.

Given the monumental human tragedy that has unfolded in Iraq over the past five years, you'd think that further military adventures hatched on the backs of MoD fag packets would have been guarded against, but along came Helmand province.

Tragically, the fact that many soldiers are killed in these operations serves only to strengthen the myths of heroism and sacrifice that the Army relies on to pursue these adventures in the first place. These ideals allow the admirable personal qualities of soldiers killed on operations to be readily confused with the nature of the conflict. Partly a psychological defence mechanism, it allows soldiers to come to terms with the deaths of their colleagues without calling into question the fundamental reason for such deaths.

This graveside reasoning goes roughly like this: "He loved his job and the Army; he was an honourable man; therefore his death can only be honourable and worthwhile." Following this line of reasoning after the deaths of friends and colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan, I eventually found the answers wanting, became disillusioned and left. But if a few disillusioned officers leave, it makes no difference to the Army; there are always more fresh faces arriving from Sandhurst.

Rather than highlighting the appalling truths about the war in Helmand, the media, dazzled by the heroic ideal that Prince Harry so perfectly embodies, perpetuate the myth that this is a just war fit for heroes. The frenzy of coverage in Friday's papers (with the conspicuous exception of this newspaper) was facile; "Watch Prince Harry fighting in Helmand," proffered one broadsheet website.

This is war reduced to entertainment, willingly ignorant of the truth that young men like Harry, both British and Afghan, are dying violent pointless deaths in Helmand province. Outrage is the only response to this, not entertainment."

Can Harper Feel MacKay's Hot Breath on His Neck?

There's a curious piece in the Canadian Press, "MacKay says he has no knowledge of alleged financial offer to Cadman." My first reaction was "okay, so what?"

"I don't know anything about how this has come about. Certainly it was something that I was not involved with," said MacKay, who was in St. John's, N.L., to make a funding announcement.

"I think it's sad, quite frankly, that this seems to have come up. It's very unfortunate."

All MacKay seems to be saying is that he's lily-clean in this "unfortunate" business. No denial that Cadman was bribed. No indignant vouching for the integrity of his boss, Harpo. No accusation that the Libs are exploiting the issue to smear the prime minister. Just that "it's sad" and "frankly ...unfortunate."

I wonder if Peter sees the writing on the wall for Stevie? Just curious.

Tory Desperation - Reviving Grewal

The Grumpy Voter has posted a warning to the Libs not to get too haughty over the Cadman affair lest they be forced to again wear the shame of the Grewal scandal. Oh, that was a Liberal scandal, Grump?

What's Grewal up to these days, Grump? You might remember that he resigned in disgrace. And, as for his "smoking gun" tape, do you recall what happened with that? Recall how Grewal's tape was found to have been fiercely edited? Recall how Grewal "chose" not to produce the original? And, for the record, Dosanj was investigated - and cleared.

So, don't lecture the Liberals on the Grewal Scandal, Grump. Point your finger in the other direction. Yes, and we're talking about the same bunch that lurks behind the Cadman story.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051129/gurmant_grewal_051129?s_name=&no_ads=

See also the delightful blog, "Buckets of Grewal"

http://bucketsofgrewal.blogspot.com/

The Tories must be in a psychotic fit of desperation to drag Grewal to their defence.

The Very Definition of Futility

"We have a long- term commitment vis-a-vis Afghanistan. . . . All 26 NATO allies are there, and we are there for the long haul." NATO forces are in Afghanistan "to support President [Hamid] Karzai and the Afghan people," he said. "But we are also there because we are fighting terrorism and we cannot afford to lose. We will not lose. We are not losing. We are prevailing."

Those inspiring remarks came out of the mouth of the increasingly incredulous NATO secretary-general, Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, following a 45-minute chinwag with George w. Bush yesterday.

So just how well are we "prevailing?" Paul Koring explains in the Globe & Mail that "the mission" is a bust:

"Most aid organizations quietly withdrew their international staff from Kandahar in recent weeks, the latest sign that the situation here is getting worse. It's now almost impossible to spot a foreigner on the city streets, except for the occasional glimpse of a pale face in a troop carrier or a United Nations armoured vehicle.

"At least the foreigners can escape. For many ordinary people the ramshackle city now feels like a prison, with the highways out of town regularly blocked by Taliban or bandits. Residents have even started avoiding their own city streets after dark, as formerly bustling shops switch off their colourful neon lights and pull down the shutters. There is rarely any electricity for the lights anyway, partly because the roads are too dangerous for contractors to risk bringing in a new turbine for a nearby hydroelectric generator.

"Corrupt police prowl the intersections, enforcing a curfew for anybody without that night's password, or bribe money. The officers seem especially nervous these days, because the Taliban hit them almost every night with ambushes, rocket-propelled grenades or just a deceptively friendly man who walks up to a police checkpoint with an automatic rifle hidden under a shawl.

"Insurgent attacks have climbed sharply in Kandahar and across the country. But some analysts believe the numbers don't capture the full horror of what's happening in Afghanistan's south and east.

The United Nations's count of security incidents in Afghanistan last year climbed to 13 times the number recorded in 2003, and the UN forecasts even worse this year. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization says insurgent attacks increased 64 per cent from 2006 to 2007. In the first two months of this year, some analysts have noticed a 15- to 20-per-cent rise in insurgent activity compared with the same period last year, raising alarm about whether the traditional spring fighting season has started early.

"Make no mistake, NATO is not winning in Afghanistan," concluded the Atlantic Council of the United States, a prestigious American think tank that deals with international affairs.


Hillier's Hubris

"It was widely believed that a few thousand troops could stabilize a province such as Kandahar.

"In retrospect, it was naive," said a Western security official in Kabul. "It was a mistake."

In a blunt assessment this week, Vice-Admiral Michael McConnell, the U.S. intelligence czar, admitted that the Karzai government controls less than one-third of the country. The Taliban hold 10 per cent on a more-or-less permanent basis while the rest is run by local warlords, he said, describing the situation as deteriorating.

Even that gloomy picture may represent an airbrushed version of events, some analysts say, because increasing collusion between Taliban and local powerbrokers — criminal groups, warlords, drug barons, ordinary farmers and even government authorities — allows the insurgents to operate freely in districts without exerting visible control.

Even if villagers aren't afraid of the Taliban, many join up because they find the new government unpalatable. No regime has ever been overthrown at the ballot box in Afghanistan, so political opposition often becomes part of the insurgency.

They watch government officials profit from the drug trade, and grow angry when eradicators destroy their small field of poppies. And in the battle-scarred landscape where Canadians operate, many people nurse deep grudges against the foreign troops after having their relatives detained or killed in the years of fighting.

On most days, fewer than 600 Canadian soldiers are "outside the wire" of NATO's sprawling base at Kandahar Airport, a number that everyone concedes is far too few to conduct a classic counterinsurgency campaign.

For rough comparison, NATO sent 40,000 troops into Kosovo — a place roughly one-quarter the size of Kandahar and with no active insurgency in 1999. More than one-third of them are still there eight years later. In fact, NATO has five times as many troops deployed in Kosovo as Canada has in Kandahar.

Nearly everyone agrees, however, that Afghanistan will likely see rising violence in 2008. Two Western security analysts predicted that the year will bring increased sophistication in the Taliban's technology; they're likely to use so-called explosively formed penetrators„© for the first time, adopting a technique often used in Iraq to puncture even the most heavily armoured vehicle with a specially shaped explosive.
Afghanistan's economic growth is also expected to continue slowing. Private investment was cut in half in 2007 compared with a year earlier, to about $500-million, and trade within the country will be hampered by Taliban and criminal roadblocks on the main highways."

This is the face of failure, plain and simple. Our soldiers are doing the very best they can, far more than we have any right to expect of them. Even if this was just a simple, straight forward, counterinsurgency war, we are fielding only a very small fraction of the force that would be needed for the job. The tactics we're using don't work. They've been tried before, over and again, and they don't work. But this isn't just a simple counterinsurgency campaign. It's complicated by a failed, central government in Kabul - thoroughly corrupt and compromised; a flourishing narco-economy; cancerous warlordism and religious fundamentalism; and, of course and as always, Pakistan.

The inane comments of Jaap De Hoop Scheffer should be a clarion call warning of how horribly NATO is being led. It's thinking like his and like Hillier's and like Bush's that explains why "the mission" has suffered steady and increasing setbacks in Afghanistan.

As I've said so many times before, if we're not in this to win, we have no business being in it at all. End the mission, bring our soldiers home.

Now, More Than Never

First you drive up grain prices, then you cut aid to those you've hurt most. Neat trick, eh?

Grain prices are up, everybody knows that. Wheat alone has shot up around 80% in the past year and corn, well it's way up too, in part due to diversion of stocks for ethanol production. It's a great time for agribusiness but, in fairness, it might not be quite so good if you're starving.

As the Washington Post reports, soaring grain prices are being met in the U.S., not with a commensurate increase in funding, but with a commensurate decrease in the amount of food that'll go to those who need it most:

"The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said.

USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India."

Relax, it's not like the poor have SUVs anyway. They don't even need ethanol.