US warns Ottawa of pending WikiLeaks release
- Thread starter Scott T
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Bruno@MT
Senior Master
I started doubting the definition of 'Ally' when Bush asked us to go to war but could not tell us why. Judging from the American reactions when France refused to do so without being allowed to review the information, I guess it is roughly something like 'lapdog'.
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Scott T
Brown Belt
True 'nuff. Freedom fries, anyone?
France has the 4th largest group of soldiers in Afghanistan, after the US, the UK and Germany.
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Scott T
Brown Belt
But, like us, they didn't go to Iraq, even though the French government was willing to if only Washington could supply evidence to support it's claims.
Washington couldn't, and like us France took a lot of heat from those Beltway Bastards when it refused to be involved with invasion of Iraq.
Be prepared guys, with the weakness Obama is showing to all the global bad actors the next two years may make you wish Bush was back in office. You guys may not be able to just be spectator nations anymore and you may have to actually carry a fair share of the millitary burden around the world. It is nice to be able to complain when another country is carrying the heaviest end of the millitary burden. Good luck. Maybe you can show us how it should be done. You may have to increase your millitary spending though, so much for all the socialist goodies.
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Scott T
Brown Belt
Yeah, we'll just forget about the Canadian servicemen and woman that have died in Afghanistan for you, just to make you feel better.
I'm all for Canada having a military that was the size that it was during WW2, but even then I wouldn't want it to be commanded by Washington. If we go to war, it should be for our own reasons, not yours.
As for the US 'carrying the burden', Iraq was all on you, In a perfect world you would have went alone.
Canadians did not sign up to fight American wars.
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Buddying up with Hugo Chavez, taking no serious steps to curb Irans nuclear weapons development, alienating Israel and Great Britain, screwing up the U.S. economy with his spending policies that even the Europeans are telling him to stop doing. He is asked by his field commander for 80,000 combat troops in Afghanistan and then gives him a grudging 30,000 and at the same time gives the enemy the date he is going to pull us out. The russians and Iranians are playing kissy face with the thugs in Latin America. You'll see, the bad guys see that they know who he is now, as opposed to what the western press made him out to be, and they realize they have two years to get some things done. Some have suggested that China may move on Taiwan, we'll see. Time will tell.
Sorry, yes that was my point.
They attacked the French for questioning in public the existance of WMD in Iraq, but still had no issue with them keeping a large force in Afghanistan.
I'm almost certain we, and every other NATO ally asked for proof in private and told them in private no, the French made a show of it in order to gain trading points in the Middle East.
Unwritten rule of politics, you never embarrass your friends or family in public.
What would Canada have gained from raising a big stink about evidence for WMD? France gained market share for its weapons in the Middle East. Canada and the US, despite most Americans not knowing about it are each others most important trading partners. One million Canadian jobs rely on exports to the USA, we trade $2 billion worth of goods a day. We settle our disputes 99% of the time amicably at a table, we help each other in the defence of NA, our coast guards have permission to go into each others territory to save lives, we send fire fighters to help with US fires, they do the same, the first foreign aid after Katrina were Canadian navy ships, 9/11 we sent down tonnes of folks to help, the ice storm a few years back, Canadian linesmen went down and restrung power lines. Why would you put all that in jeopardy?
The US is still the worldÂ’s only superpower, it has its own wants and needs in the world. Of course some of its decisions we disagree with, I donÂ’t agree with many decisions the Canadian government makes, and the British, and the German, and the Japanese, and the GreeksÂ…..
The USA is our friend, our neighbour and our blood cousin, and I wouldnÂ’t have it any other way.
Bruno@MT
Senior Master
If the US hadn't invaded Iraq, the world would be a much safer place right now.
Iraq had no WMD other than what the US gave them 2 decades ago, and they had no link with al qaeda or terrorism.
But now, all the nutheads of the world have a cause to flock to, and they are doing so in significant numbers. There wouldn't have been so much heavy lifting is the US hadn't made such a mess in the first place. You do know that the US is responsible for Saddam Hussein and the Iranian fundamentalist regime, right?
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Scott T
Brown Belt
The USA is a friend when it's convenient for them or when they want something. That's where the inflatable date analogy comes in, when they don't need or want something from us, we're tossed in a closet until the next demand comes. And when it does, we're hauled out to get ****ed again.
I'm all for weakening our economic ties to to the US by a minimum of 60% of current levels. The manufacturers would ***** and moan about the loss of a convenient market, but with the opening of European and Asian markets they can recoup those losses with a little extra work. As things stand so far, we are nothing more than an economic colony of the US and that just doesn't sit right with me.
I'm also for re-opening NAFTA, especially the area of energy security. We have none. Even that cow Pelosi made the claim that Canadian oil isn't considered foreign oil by Washington.
Back when I was in high school and Mulroney was selling us out with the original FTA, my cousin had a shirt that summed up Canada/US relations perfectly. On it was a graphic of a bald eagle ****ing a beaver hard, and the beaver had it's front paws covering it's eye (he damned near got expelled for wearing it to school, but that's another topic).
No, nations should at this point grow some balls say what they think, publicly, instead of pissing their pants when Uncle Sammy tells them to get on their knees.
I look forward to reading the wikileaks release.
What would Canada have gained from raising a stink? Maybe some respect from it's electorate for standing up for our ideals instead of someone else's.
The terrorists had no iraq invasion when they bombed our embassies in africa, when the blew that big hole in the Cole, when they attacked the world trade center the first time, and when they blew up the world trade center and knocked it down killing 3,000 american and foreign nationals. Not to mention all the other terror they committed before that. I have to wonder how they recruited the 19 killers for 9/11 when we hadn't invaded Iraq yet. Yes, we are responsible for Iran, or more specifically, a left wing President, Jimmy Carter is. We should have deposed Saadam after the first Gulf war, the first George Bush on advice of moderate Republican/democrat Colin Powell. Getting rid of saadam was a good move. It gives the Iraqi people a chance at a democracy which will help stabalize the region, not in the short term, but eventually. It is far easier, when you have a president interested in dealing with threats, to deal with Iran when you have assets next to their country as opposed to not. So far the nut jobs have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers, men and women trained for combat, as opposed to large efforts to kill un-armed civillians here. That is now changing, look at Mumbai, and the various bomb atttempts here. They are no longer afraid of us, more because of our show of weakness, releasing guantanomo detainees who go back and rejoin the fight, the civillian trial disaster, the announcing of a date of pulling out combat troops. Expect more attempts more often and look to Mumbai as the next step in their attacks.
I'm not in favor of any brutal regimes but of the two, replacing one bad regime with an even worse regime that is exporting and supporting islamic terrorism around the world, trying and succeeding in getting a nuclear weapon, which it may very well use on the only democracy in the area, as well as giving out radioctive material to terrorists, I think the Shah may have been a less worse alternative.
You are aware that the US installed and supported the Shah, but not the Mullahs, right? I'm not quite sure what you are trying to blame Carter for.
