According to this G&M/CTV/Strategic Counsel poll, 82% of Canadians are now opposed to the Iraq war but their three "most admired" politicians are the ones who have voted to support it.
A more interesting poll would have been to ask what percentage of people are recently coming to the conclusion that Iran was behind 9/11.
5 comments:
I think, and have always felt that Iraq was the wrong war. Afghanistan and Pakistan were the proper conflicts, and now it seems that view has been arrived at by the media as well. Incredibly though the American public continue to place Iraq on a higher priority level than Afghanistan.
If Obama has not since changed his mind, then he would agree with you.
In 2004 he indicated support for pre-emptive strikes on Iran and also Pakistan in the event of a coup there; his much-touted current plan to withdraw some US combat troops from Iraq recommends redeploying them to Afghanistan.
I'm not a supported of the war racket, Raphael.
Economist Kenneth Boulding wrote that the world military system is a single system in which the component national forces derive their legitimacy, and therefore budgets, from rival national and military forces. Recognizing this, he said, "is an important step towards achieving a collapse of the legitimacy of military organizations."
Well, of course I disagree with your view on the necessity of militarism but I'm hardly a war hawk. Your view interests me from the perspective of one who supports the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan since your utter rejection of wars in general makes it impossible for one to convince you of any perceived necessity for intervention in the country. I suppose you belong to a demographic for whom no justification other than defense of Canada would be legitimate.
Ah well, vive le difference.
By the way, I've visited Bowen Island a few times. Quite a nice, little place.
As a pacifist and practitioner of interest-based, non-violent conflict resolution, I was, for a while, surprised at the number of people I'd encounter who were not directly involved in the military or military industries but who still held militaristic views. After a while I came to realize how deeply inculcated we are generally, through government schooling; mainstream media; propaganda written by our own military and/or their suppliers. This support Boulding's observations.
Challenging that world view can often amount to serious cognitive dissonance and so it's no surprise that no one even appears to have batted an eye at the the QUESTION: "Do you believe the US government made the right or wrong decision to BECOME INVOLVED IN the war in Iraq" !!!!
For the record: The U.S. STARTED what is now becoming a dreadful 'civil' war in Iraq with their illegal attack, bombings and continued occupation of Iraq. There was no war to 'become involved in', like WW2, in which the U.S. became involved late in the day and made up for lost time by employing weapons of mass destruction upon hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. (Next time we go out looking for weapons of mass destruction, we might start inspecting a little closer to home.)
Maybe there wasn't enough space on the questionnaire...
Peace, Love and Justice
waterbaby
You know, Waterbaby, I completely missed that. Thank you. Wonder how many others did. I just read the question out loud to a couple of people here and they both immediately said, "Whoa, became involved in? How about:started it?"
Am now cutting and pasting your observation elsewhere...
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