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 readingTag: NATO
Alberta Politics: Thanks to Donald Trump, the post-war American imperium that’s run like a Swiss watch is coming unsprung!
PHOTOS: U.S. President Donald Trump’s inaugural parade makes its way through Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017, just before the stuff hit the fan and everything went to hell in a handbasket. (Photo: United States Navy.) Below: President Trump, former president Barack Obama, the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau,
Continue readingAlberta Politics: From the Twitter account of the former Deputy Leader of Free Alberta: Angela Merkel’s the leader of the free world
PHOTOS: The leader of the free world, listening to Neil Young on sound cancelling headphones. Click here for the soundtrack to this post. The confused looking elderly man with a comb-over to her left is thinking: “Who is that person?” Probably not in those exact words, though. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.)
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: That Could Touch a Nerve
There was a quiet and barely noticed event at last year’s Republican convention when Donald Trump was officially chosen as the party’s presidential candidate. It involved one plank of the official Republican platform that called for America to provide “lethal defensive weapons” to Ukrainian forces fighting off Russian intrusions. Of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The tragedies we ignore: Recent Wildrose gaffe won’t end right’s bogus equivalencies in Canadian political discourse
PHOTOS: The Famine Memorial in Dublin. The Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and ’50s is ignored in current Canadian political discourse while the Ukrainian Famine of the 1930s is frequently evoked. Both are real historical events with ideological roo…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Wait Just a Second
What’s that? All those new NATO partners in eastern Europe don’t want to defend eastern Europe?The United States is asking Canada to join with it and the Germans and Brits to constitute a rapid reaction force along the frontier with Russia.Let’s see, u…
Continue readingMind Bending Politics: China Defends Its Woody Which Could Kick Off WW3
It takes 3 continents at war to declare another global war, and with recent developments over the past week it looks as though we may be heading in that direction. Europe is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, NATO is fighting in the middle east, and now China is flexing its military might in the Asia Pacific Region installing surface-to-air missile systems in and around a disputed island in the South China Sea called Woody Island.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Year in review: from plunging oil to rising hope, the Top Ten news stories of 2015
PHOTOS: Cameras try to follow a nearly invisible Rachel Notley through the crowd at an Edmonton hotel on May 5, 2015, moments after she had been declared the winner of the Alberta election. No one could quite believe that the NDP had just won a majorit…
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: National Post: NATO and the Judgement of Paris
The lessons of Afghanistan were purchased at a bitter cost: the war claimed more lives, more years, and more money than any other campaign in NATO’s history. Unless the alliance takes those lessons to heart, a war in Syria and Iraq to extinguish D…
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Addressing the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Being at the table during deliberations on war, peace, and the fate of nations was an extraordinary experience. I remember seeing the Berlin Wall fall, and hoping that the age of global warfare might be over. That moment now feels far away. We are clearly facing terrible risks, and it
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair Have Got it so Wrong on ISIS
Recently the Toronto Star posted a piece on Thomas Mulcair and the fight against ISIS: Mulcair Would Pull Canada From U.S. Led Mission in Mid-East if Elected. This is a big mistake, not only politically, but from a humanitarian angle. There is no argument that George Bush’s ill-conceived war in
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair Have Got it so Wrong on ISIS
Recently the Toronto Star posted a piece on Thomas Mulcair and the fight against ISIS: Mulcair Would Pull Canada From U.S. Led Mission in Mid-East if Elected.
This is a big mistake, not only politically, but from a humanitarian angle. There is no argument that George Bush’s ill-conceived war in Iraq, or in fact the decades of invasions in the region, gave rise to ISIS; but abandonment is not the answer.
As part of his reasoning, Mulcair claims that this is neither a NATO nor a UN mission, but he is wrong. Nato is involved and were involved in most, if not all, engagements in the Middle East. The United Nations has resolved to stop the flow of money and arms going to ISIS, but many of the arms they are using, are those left by the Americans
And the NATO missions that Mulcair is promoting, have destabilized regions, making them ripe for terrorist takeover. You can be a pacifist and oppose war, but if you support any war, you are no longer a pacifist. His stand is a bit confusing.
As to stopping the flow of money going to ISIS that too will be difficult. The west has been bombing oil refineries, one source of revenue, and some nations are refusing to pay ransoms, and yet the organization is still able to pay their bills, as well as provide money to run, according to the Economist, “services across the areas it controls, paying schoolteachers and providing for the poor and widowed.”
We run the risk of further alienating the occupied, if ISIS can blame the west for not being able to take care of the people. We need to stop bombing, but we can’t just leave. Humanitarian aid and training is still necessary.
Radicalization and NDP Naivete
When Stephen Harper announced that he would stop Canadians from travelling to countries engaged in “terrorist” activities, Mulcair said he would support the initiative, but questioned whether it would help in the fight against “terrorism”. He went on to say that C-51 did not do enough to combat the “radicalization of youth”.
This was actually a topic for debate in the Commons, as the NDP tried to push through an amendment to C-51, reading in part, that the Bill “…does not include the type of concrete, effective measures that have been proven to work, such as providing support to communities that are struggling to counter radicalization.
What communities do they mean?
I rarely agree with anything Peter Van Loan says, but he did raise the issue that it was “ill defined”. Do they mean Muslim communities? Peter Julian had this to say:
The mosque that is in my riding in Burnaby—New Westminster was the mosque the man who murdered Cpl. Nathan Cirillo attended. I travelled to that mosque within a couple of days of what happened on October 22 here on the Hill. What the mosque members told me was quite stark. They said that they knew he had profound mental illness. They knew that he had a drug addiction. They tried to seek help, and there was nothing available. This is something we have heard from communities right across the country.
It sounds like the issue is more about mental illness and drug addiction, issues that are discussed in many places, and not confined to Mosques. It would appear that the NDP believe, like the Conservatives, that terrorism is associated with Islam. This is not only Xenophobic but incorrect. While the Islamic State is using the religious angle, their motives are not religious, but political.
According to Huffington Post, Yusuf Sarwar and Mohammed Ahmed, the two Brits who went to Syria to join the rebels, first purchased off Amazon, two books: Islam for Dummies and The Koran for Dummies They were not devout Muslims. Nor were the 9/11 hijackers who reportedly used cocaine, drank alcohol, slept with prostitutes and attended strip clubs, but never belonged to a mosque.
A 2008 report published in the Guardian, dispelled the stereotypes of those who become involved in terrorism: “ They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices. Nor, the analysis says, are they “mad and bad”. and “Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly.”
Didier François, a French journalist who was held by Isis in Syria for ten months before being released in April 2014, has provided some insight into the life of those fighting for ISIS, in a CNN interview.
“There was never really discussion about texts. It was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion. It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran. We didn’t even have the Quran. They didn’t want even to give us a Quran.”
This is a political movement, not a Jihad one. President Obama has been trying to stress that, but his words are falling on deaf ears. I often learn a lot by reading the comments section of media reports, and in one, there is a debate between two readers. One was trying to stress that all terrorists are Muslim but their opponent fired back by saying: “Christians are also terrorists. They just call it ‘shock and awe'”.
It is not religion that is fuelling this war, it’s war itself.
The Radicalization of Youth Has Little to do With Communities
Al Jazeera also published the results of a study, defining the risk factors for violent radicalization: Youth, wealth and academia appear to predispose individuals to sympathizing with acts of terrorism.
Perhaps surprisingly, religious practice, mental health, social inequality and political engagement were not significant factors.
“We’re offering a new paradigm for sympathies as an early phase of radicalization that can be measured,” Kamaldeep Bhui, the study’s lead author and a cultural psychology professor at the university, told Al Jazeera.
While just 2.4 percent of people expressed some sympathy for violence overall, researchers found that those under the age 20, those in full-time education rather than employment, and those with annual incomes above $125,000 were more prone to express sympathy for violent protests and “terrorism.”
The attack on Parliament Hill was perpetrated by a mentally ill, homeless man, but mental illness is a separate issue, just as drug addiction and homelessness are.
“One explanation for homegrown terrorism in high-income countries is that it’s about inequality-related grievances,” Bhui said in a phone interview. “We were surprised that [the] inequality paradigm seems not to be supported. The study essentially seemed to show that those born in the U.K. consistent with the radicalization paradigm are actually more affluent or well off.”
Two other findings stood in conflict with prevailing stereotypes about so-called homegrown terrorism in the West: Immigrants and those who speak a non-English language at home, as well as those who reported suffering from anxiety or depression, were less likely to express sympathy for terrorist acts.
If we really want to “stop the flow”, we need to stop invading countries, and taking part in “regime changes”, simply because they are not willing to conduct business on our terms. Many of the sympathizers are well educated, and intelligent enough to know that there have been grave injustices committed, while society at large blames the victims. Who are the “terrorists”?
I agree with supporting “at risk” communities, dealing with poverty and youth unemployment, but that will not stop terrorists. As studies have found, they are not poor, uneducated or unemployed and rarely religious. In fact, the stereotypical description of radicalized youth, are often the ones who believe that all terrorists are Muslims.
That’s where we have to “stop the flow”. Misinformation.
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Why Stephen Harper and Thomas Mulcair Have Got it so Wrong on ISIS
Recently the Toronto Star posted a piece on Thomas Mulcair and the fight against ISIS: Mulcair Would Pull Canada From U.S. Led Mission in Mid-East if Elected. This is a big mistake, not only politically, but from a humanitarian angle. There is no argument that George Bush’s ill-conceived war in
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Austerity’s Silver Lining – Arms Race Update
A couple of headlines this morning got me thinking that the West’s embrace of austerity might not be all bad. Of course it’s probably just wishful thinking. The first article concerns a refreshingly nuanced and balanced lecture delivered by former US ambassador to Russia, Jack Matlock. In a lecture at
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Let’s Ditch the Cowboy Act
Modern, high-tech warfare is putting many nations in an increasingly offensive military posture. The controversial F-35 is a perfect example. Despite what we’re told, the F-35 is not a fighter jet. It’s a light attack bomber, an inherently offensive, first-strike weapon. One American general, by way of defending the F-35,
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Whacking Iran – Maybe Sooner Than You Might Think – The Warmonger Digest, vol. 2
It’s reported that the Saudis have given Israel a green light to overfly Saudi Arabia should Netanyahu decide to launch an attack on Iran. Jerusalem and Riyadh do not have diplomatic ties, but unconfirmed reports have swirled for years of coordination between them against the common enemy of Iran, a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Germany Alarmed at NATO’s (and America’s) Ginned Up Claims on Ukraine
A Warmonger and a Fearmonger Angela Merkel thinks that Germany (and the rest of the West) is being conned by NATO and the U.S. inflating the Russian threat to the Ukraine. General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said,
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Why Is the West Spoiling for a Fight with Russia?
At a time where the commercial media, or much of it, serves to whip up hysteria over challenges from ISIS, the so called aggressive actions of Putin and other US/Nato driven issues we can be grateful for the internet, bloggers and social media. Murray Dobbin’s articles would get short shrift
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Bangin’ that Old War Drum, Again.
Maybe it’s because they’re still smarting from getting their asses handed to them in Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe not. Either way it’s getting a bit embarrassing listening to Western military leaders banging the war drums over Russia. NATO, especially, is sounding the alarm of an all-out shooting war with the
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Are We Really Willing to Go To War over Ukraine?
Would you be okay if it was your kids in uniform going off to a shooting war with the Russians over Ukraine? The whole idea seems fantastic, ridiculous. We tend to dismiss it as unimaginable but giving it short shrift can be lethal. Earlier this week three words caught my
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