On September 11th, 2001, the Islamist extremist group al-Qaeda carried out one of the most dramatic terrorist attacks in history on the United States. It knocked down two phallic symbols of U.S. capitalism and killed nearly 3,000 innocent people. The Americans could have sought out the perpetrators and brought them
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Alberta Politics: Trudeau in India, Part II: Canadian governments, and not just Liberals, have a history of playing footsie with bad actors
PHOTOS: A screenshot of what looks like a video of the controversial snapshot of Jaspal Atwal and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, grabbed from Twitter. The ownership of the photo is attributed variously, usually to the last place someone saw it. What does seem clear is that Mr. Atwal was almost as
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: How Long Is This Guy Planning to Live?
That’s a tall order, Mohammed, even for a crown prince. A lot of people won’t want you to live to see the day. Mohammed bin Sultan, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, vows to return his country to “moderate Islam” once he gets his turn at the wheel. In an interview
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Justin’s Folly – Selling Death Wagons to a Despotic Regime Going Broke
You remember the Saudi death wagon controversy when the Trudeau regime gave the go ahead to the sale of 15-billion dollars worth of armoured fighting vehicles to Saudi Arabia. Well, what if those death wagons fall into the hands of the very people we’ve been over there fighting, radical Sunni
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Could Syria Become the 21st Century Sarajevo?
There were plenty of proxy wars during the Cold War only back then the principals had enough sense to avoid direct clashes. That was then, this is Syria where today we find the rival superpowers circling each other inside the same phone booth. You could search the world over and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Lawyers, guns and money: Russia’s intervention in Syria offers a useful teaching moment for Canadians
PHOTOS: A Russian Su-34 bomber releases a bomb near the provisional ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria. (Russian Ministry of Defence photo.) Below: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian civil war has offered a unique teaching
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Deliver Us From Evil
Why do we tolerate Saudi Arabia when the kingdom, and its Sunni state allies, seems determined to deliver Yemen into the control of ISIS and al Qaeda? Gwynne Dyer writes that, while we wage an air war against ISIS, the Saudis are undermining our effort with their war on the
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Possibly Fatal Syrian Mistake
On CTV's Question Period yesterday Craig Oliver reminded viewers of Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote: "Speak softly and carry a big stick."And he said Stephen Harper's views on military power, and his new war in Syria, are exactly the opposite: "Speak loudly and carry a twig."But goodness knows Harper is desperate,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That Burnt Smell, That Hissing Sound? That’s the Fuze.
Well, if nothing else, Stephen Harper might just have earned Canada a ringside seat to the outbreak of a Middle East regional war. The way the International Crisis Group sees it, the Saudi air war on Shiite Yemeni rebels might just be the burning fuze that explodes the Sunni-Shia powder
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why Are the Harper Cons Preparing to Support Al Qaeda?
The brutish Con message has been there from the very beginning, but it just got even more disturbing.Because there is nothing Stephen Harper will not do or say to try to win another majority.So if you don't support Bill C-51, his plan to turn us into a police state, you
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Our Schizophrenic War on Terror
Ah, yeah, right. It’s tough to win a war when you have to ally yourselves with both sides. That injects an element of schizophrenia in your policies and planning. It results in a fatal lack of coherence, a narrative that is hopelessly confused. And that is what confronts us in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: About That Islamic Terrorism, Who Are We Kidding?
Well those damned Muslims have us in hysterics now. Rupert Murdoch says this is on all Muslims. Bill Maher says ditto. But wait. There are two strains of Muslims – Sunni and Shia. Our Muslims of choice, those we consider our allies, are Sunni – Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: What Are We Getting Ourselves Into?
Before long the Middle East will look like a parking lot for Western jet fighters. The place will be awash in Hornets and Super Hornets, F-16s, F-22s, Eurofighters and Rafales and Tornados. They’ll be flying about over Syria and Iraq searching for something, anything to bomb into rubble and pulp.
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Reasons why "The Khorasan Group" was fabricated by the US government
When the US-led bombing campaign in Syria got underway media outlets announced the emergence of a new jihadist threat that posed an even greater threat to the US than ISIL. It wasn’t just a threat to the region, but a direct and imminent threat to the United States. “The Khorasan
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Justin, Tommy – Here’s Your Talking Points
Look, if you can’t nail Harper on this ISIS business, you’re not fit to govern anything much less our country. What you need to do is pry the lid off ISIS. Show Canadians what lies beneath, who stands behind. Start with the notion that this seemingly well-organized, well-trained, well-equipped and
Continue readingIraq—an Al-Qaeda playground
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The U.S. and its coalition of the willing invaded Iraq with the justification that it had weapons of mass destruction and Saddam was conspiring with al-Qaeda to use them. The country had to be cleansed of both. But of course there were neither
Continue readingLeDaro: Syria: U.S hypocrisy on Syria situation
First it was Assad who was murdering the civilians. U.S was all set to invade Syria. It was a matter of days according to reports in late August and early September of this year. Now the tune has changed. It is the rebels and Al-Qaida who are doing the murdering and forcing people
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Arab Spring: uprisings, protests… not much to do with revolution
A recent Tariq Ali article in Guernica – What is a Revolution – challenges misconceptions about the popular uprisings in the Middle East that some pundits characterise as the Arab Spring or more dramatically as “revolutions.” A key point in Ali’s article is that popular uprisings, however large, do not
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Al Qaeda linked rebels in Syria: Putin accuses Kerry of lying: Syrian rebel atrocities – NYT video footage
Islamist fighters in Syria: Beneath – al-Nusra Front fighters execute Syrian soldiers Given the military excesses the Assad regime has directed against its own people, genuine representatives of the Syrian people would seem like the force to back in the increasingly vicious civil conflict. But maybe not. A rebel force
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