How many refugees should we accept?
Joseph Stalin once said that if you kill one person it’s murder, if you kill a million it’s a statistic. The old psychopath, who knew a lot about killing one…
Syria
Stirring Images of Syrian Boy’s Body Now Symbol of Europe’s Crisis-NBC
Today, a photo from Turkey showing the body of a lifeless Syrian boy washed upon a beach became a symbolic image of the refugee plight.
Jason Kenney sails close to the wind on Anti-Terrorism Act at picnic visit
PHOTOS: Liberal candidate Adam Vaughan’s photo of the Kurdish Peace and Cultural Festival in Toronto Saturday, with an image of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan visible in the background. (Grabbed from…
The Point of No Return?
A friend sent me a link to a Rolling Stone article, “The Point of No Return: Climate Change Nightmares are Already Here.” It’s a relatively complete and accurate synopsis of…
That Conservative foreign policy election plank: shaky, incoherent and quite possibly dangerous
PHOTOS: A screen grab from the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s notorious electioneering video showing the himself and Defence Minister Jason Kenney in Iraqi Kurdistan, with the face of a Canadian…
The Fundamental(ist) Reasons for It All…..
Rise of the ‘precariat,’ the global scourge of precarious jobs Barely one in four of the global workforce has a stable job, UN reports By Brian Stewart, CBC News Posted:…
His Highness Emperor Stephen Harper
Harper is putting Canadian troops on the frontlines in Iraq, when even the United States would not, and then sending Canadian troops to Syria. He’s taking our country deeper into…
The Final Chapter for Bashar Assad
Things are not looking up for Syrian strongman, Bashar Assad. His first problem is the Sunni Muslim coalition of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia (ordinarily not the best of friends)…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alison picks up on Armine Yalnizyan’s important question as to whether the Cons have a Plan B other than hoping for factors…
"Whack a Mole" is No Reason to Go to War.
We spent a decade in Afghanistan playing whack-a-mole, essentially achieving nothing. We had no coherent vision of what ‘victory’ might even look like much less how it could be achieved.…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Simon Wren-Lewis connects the UK’s counterproductive austerity program to the lack of any wage growth. And Gary Lamphier observes that Alberta is…
How Harper Turned Canada into a Rogue State
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger How Harper Turned Canada into a Rogue State It was not easy for those who went before us to build Canada into the remarkable and much respected…
You’ll Need More Than a Six-Pack for That Job.
Well, that was the idea anyway. Brace yourselves. In a move that could send chills down the spine of every member of ISIS, it’s been revealed that Canada is ‘considering’…
A coalition of the willing for Syrian refugees?
The United States has resumed its war in Iraq, once again building a “coalition of the willing.” Our government has, unfortunately, decide to join this one. Our participation is unwise…
Six things we all need to think about when Canadians volunteer to fight for the Kurds
The Kurds: They should have had a country of their own, but since they don’t, and since Canada is allied by treaty to one of their principal enemies, letting Canadians…
It’s Called "Blowback"
Our confused, incoherent, even knee-jerk response to ISIS appears to be backfiring on us, at least in Syria. There, it’s reported, US air strikes are driving anti-Assad groups – outfits…
Video of Syrian boy ‘hero’ under sniper fire exposed as fake: other Syria-related propaganda
In its coverage of a video that purported to show a Syrian boy braving sniper fire in the course of rescuing a young girl, the Daily Mail lauded the spectacle…
When My Enemy’s Enemies Are Still My Enemies
One of the greatest mistakes we make in the conduct of modern warfare is to make our conflicts suit a politically palatable narrative. It can seem as though the spin…