19 September 2006
Darfur is not Rwanda
Jonathan Steele has a great piece in The Guardian today that does a great job of summarizing the what's going on in Darfur and why intervention by western troops would be detrimental:
I love intelligent analysis. Why can't we elect intelligent people who are good at making governments work, rather than the intellectually stunted dittoheads we give power to? Politicians strike me as people who did well in our severely debilitated school systems, where rote memorization gets you further than creativity, abstract thought or critical thinking. You're better off memorizing the party-line sound bytes than understanding issues or formulating solutions.
I had to explain to my son why I was screaming at the radio last night. Some jackass from the Cocks was explaining that we're not going to "cut and run" from Afghanistan. So not only are the dickweeds in power completely oblivious to the danger they have put Canadians in by changing the mission in Afghanistan to one more of attack than of reconstruction, now they're parroting the chickenhawk swagger of Washington in their justification of it.
We seriously need another election sometime soon. It's not that I think the Liberals or the NDP would do any better... well, maybe a bit. It's that they tend to use sound bytes that don't come direct and unwashed from the Republican strategy book. Bring back the good old days when crooks you could respect held the reigns of power. I liked Chretien not only because he was funny and shrewd and socially progressive, but mostly because he was a pain in the ass to Washington for not crawling up The Decider's ass and camping out there like Harper has done.
It's painfully obvious that all of the ruling parties are in cahoots. The Cocks won't re-open same-sex marriage by voting on it in Parliament until late in the year (yay democracy! way to exploit the bigotry of the masses, guys!). This seems timed to let the Liberals decide on a new leader. It would be good if the same-sex vote brought down the government, but I tend to think it will be because of some issue that affects Quebec more than anything. The Bloc have been far too cozy with the Cocks of late. That relationship can't last if they want to increase their hold on Quebec. Whatever it may be, bring it on. I think much of Canada has already lost confidence in this government. Just make them go away, back to their oilsands and mega-churches.
In most wars, governments spin and the media (at least sometimes) seek the truth. Darfur reversed the trend: the media spun while governments were more sophisticated. In spite of efforts to describe the killing in Darfur as genocide, neither the UN nor the EU went along with this description. It was not because of moral myopia, but because they understood the difference between a brutal civil war and a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing. Darfur is not Rwanda.Thanks to dru at Dominion Weblog for the link.
I love intelligent analysis. Why can't we elect intelligent people who are good at making governments work, rather than the intellectually stunted dittoheads we give power to? Politicians strike me as people who did well in our severely debilitated school systems, where rote memorization gets you further than creativity, abstract thought or critical thinking. You're better off memorizing the party-line sound bytes than understanding issues or formulating solutions.
I had to explain to my son why I was screaming at the radio last night. Some jackass from the Cocks was explaining that we're not going to "cut and run" from Afghanistan. So not only are the dickweeds in power completely oblivious to the danger they have put Canadians in by changing the mission in Afghanistan to one more of attack than of reconstruction, now they're parroting the chickenhawk swagger of Washington in their justification of it.
We seriously need another election sometime soon. It's not that I think the Liberals or the NDP would do any better... well, maybe a bit. It's that they tend to use sound bytes that don't come direct and unwashed from the Republican strategy book. Bring back the good old days when crooks you could respect held the reigns of power. I liked Chretien not only because he was funny and shrewd and socially progressive, but mostly because he was a pain in the ass to Washington for not crawling up The Decider's ass and camping out there like Harper has done.
It's painfully obvious that all of the ruling parties are in cahoots. The Cocks won't re-open same-sex marriage by voting on it in Parliament until late in the year (yay democracy! way to exploit the bigotry of the masses, guys!). This seems timed to let the Liberals decide on a new leader. It would be good if the same-sex vote brought down the government, but I tend to think it will be because of some issue that affects Quebec more than anything. The Bloc have been far too cozy with the Cocks of late. That relationship can't last if they want to increase their hold on Quebec. Whatever it may be, bring it on. I think much of Canada has already lost confidence in this government. Just make them go away, back to their oilsands and mega-churches.
Labels: war
// posted by Parge @ 7:46 AM
