Most unhappy that they were not Canada's government of the day in 2003 when the decision was made in the White House to wage pre-emptive war on Iraq, Canada's (minority government) governing Conservative Party of Canada is starting to beat on drum of wars in the event of a conflcit with Iran.
This caught my eye today and I thought I should put it out there.
(hat tip to buckdog in the Canuck bloggerdome)
I also think someone on the opposition benches in the HOC should be asking this question (or questions) of the government - "Is Canada prepared to go to war with Iran?"
Why do I ask this question?
More over the flip.
There's a context obviously.
Remember when Baby Dub was saying stuff like this?
"I don't know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans."
- Stephen Harper, Report Newsmagazine, March 25th 2002. As it turned out, Harper wasn't the only one who didn't know all the facts.
and
"It was probably not an appropriate term, but we support the war effort and believe we should be supporting our troops and our allies and be there with them doing everything necessary to win."
- Stephen Harper supporting the US-lead war on Iraq, Montreal Gazette, April 2nd 2003. Harper also called then-Defence Minister John McCallum an "idiot."
and
"It is inherently dangerous to allow a country such as Iraq to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behaviour. If the world community fails to disarm Iraq, we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them."
- Stephen Harper supporting the American invasion of Iraq, House of Commons, March 20, 2003.
and
"Thank you for saying to our friends in the United States of America, you are our ally, our neighbour, and our best friend in the whole wide world. And when your brave men and women give their lives for freedom and democracy we are not neutral. We do not stand on the sidelines; we're for the disarmament of Saddam and the liberation of the people of Iraq."
- Stephen Harper, Friends of America Rally, April 4, 2003
Remember those days? Yep, Baby Dub would have had our soldier's boots on the ground in Iraq.
Does Baby Dub still feel this way? Can't say that I know, but maybe Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney should be asking Baby Dub if he feels that way about any possible US action against Iran. Because it's no secret that Iran is certainly front and centre on the US agenda.
Mr. Kenney (aka the Honourable Member from Sunnyvale T.P.) was one of the guest speakers last week at Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron in Montreal's suburban Cote St-Luc on the topic of 'the threat posed by Iran's current leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad'.
And what did Mr. Kenney have to say?
Well, how about
the Harper government "stands four-square" with the Jewish community in its concerns about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "genocidal intentions."
and
that Canada "will pursue every possible avenue in concert with our allies to ensure that [Iran] does not come into possession of nuclear weapons, which could unleash unimaginable violence."
From another source, Montreal's West End Chronicle expands on that and offers a more complete quote.
"Iran is today led by a man possessed by maniacal hatred, who promises repeatedly to use violence, to use violence to obliterate from the face of the earth the Jewish state of Israel," said Kenney. "This is a regime that represents a threat not just to Israel, but indeed to world peace and security and it must be stopped."
snip...
"And so I can tell you that the government of Canada stands four-square with the rest of the civilized world in opposing without any hesitation the policy of weapon proliferation being pursued by the Iranian regime," he said.
"We will pursue with vigour every possible avenue in concert with our allies to ensure that the world acts to prevent the likes of Ahmadinejad from falling into possession of nuclear weapons with which they could unleash a kind of violence that is unthinkable, that is truly unimaginable.
"You have in the current government of Canada a government that I believe understands the moral stakes and the real strategic threats that Israel faces in its daily existential struggle for survival," he added.
"We have in our prime minister someone who, I believe, looks at the conflict in the Middle East, looks at the broader theatre and political and regional strategic context." Kenney said the Conservative government understands that Israel is not simply engaged in a conventional political conflict, "but indeed an existential fight."
Now, obviously he is speaking to his audience here and is fortunately not either the Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister or Minister of Defense, but he is speaking as a Minister of state. And he was until very recently (until January '07) Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Parliamentary Secretary and (let's be honest here) the de facto Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ironically, Jason Kenney is also a guy who recently met with and welcomed an Iranian terrorist group called the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) and also known as Mujahedin e Khalq (MEK).
Is this the official CPC policy? And what if there is some sort of US and or Israeli military action on Iran? Where are they going with this? These questions need to be asked in the HOC, and very soon. All comes at a time, too, when our military doesn't have enough boots to put on the ground in Afghanistan.
Canada's army is at least 3,000 soldiers short of meeting the nation's military commitments in Afghanistan and needs a serious boost in manpower, a commander in the Canadian Forces says.
Lieut.-Gen. Andrew Leslie said the concern is so great he is considering dipping into the part-time reserve force -- troops traditionally used in peacekeeping -- to bolster the ranks seeing combat in Afghanistan.
"By February 2009, just about every soldier in the regular army, and I'd say about 20 per cent of the reserve force, will have gone through [combat]," Leslie said.
And Kenney is saber-rattling about Iran??!!
Is this what the Canadian people really want? Because this, and worse, is what we will get if these clowns get a majority.
Cross posted at The Next Agenda