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http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Ian_Robinson/2004/10/31/pf-694032.html
Sun, October 31, 2004
Canada crippled by dishonest pacifism
By Ian Robinson
Lies are not always a bad thing.
They hold together everything from marriages to sanity, careers to nations.
"Do you think she's pretty?"
The truthful answer to this question, when posed by a wife, is not a good thing. The truthful answer might well be:
"Pretty? Dear God. That woman is so beautiful, sexy and desirable that if she was to so much as hint to me that she would be mine, I would abandon you and our offspring to struggle in poverty while I pillaged the children's college funds to try to purchase her favour with shiny trinkets."
So you lie. If you've been married for a while, you know the best lie isn't: "No, I do not think she's pretty."
The lie that really gets you off the hook is: "Who? What?" -- delivered with a slightly distracted look.
Perhaps the most famous of the marriage-saving lies: "Of course I believe you ... Dar'."
Who among us could bear to live another day if we didn't lie to ourselves?
Guys without friends think of themselves as romantic loners instead of guys without friends. And the romantic loners who tip the scales at better than 250 lb. are "big-boned romantic loners" instead of "fat guys without friends."
And nobody who has been gainfully employed for longer than seven days has managed to last that long without lying.
"No sir! I wouldn't mind wearing that paper hat and coming home every night smelling like french fries cooked in boiling hydrogenated fats."
"Wow! A 'sales associate vest' made entirely from polyester with the word 'Quality' on the back? Cool."
Lies also hold together nations. But this is where the lies start to do real damage. These aren't polite fictions that get us through the day. These are lies that kill.
The biggest Canadian lie in circulation currently is that, as a nation, we care about the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces.
We don't.
If we did, we would ensure that they were armed with proven gear and a clear mission in keeping with their role as warriors.
If we cared, we wouldn't keep electing Liberal governments that treat the military like a mad aunt chained in the attic. You inherited her, she's family, you'll keep her fed and clothed -- barely -- but you don't invite her down to take dinner with the family.
We blow a billion at Tony's House of Leaky Submersibles, not because they're needed, but because the Liberal government, uncomfortable with global realities that require a moral nation to take its place shoulder-to-shoulder with its allies, lacks the fortitude to see its sons and daughters coming home from foreign climes in body bags.
In a war against al-Qaida, sailors are among the least likely to die. Unless, of course, you bought used submarines from Tony Blair.
When a Canadian soldier, sailor or airman dies, politicians trot out the platitudes, the flag-draped coffins are off-loaded from one of our few airworthy planes, and our phoney compassion is buried with them.
Canada has become a nation crippled by a dishonest pacifism. Rather than announce we're wimps, we pretend in the councils of the powerful that we'll send our soldiers to fight ... but only if the stars are aligned just so.
We'll send "peacekeepers," an abominable word that denies the reality that it is only the application of brute and vicious force in the disordered and deadly precincts of the world that can ensure peace.
If you read the commentary in the powerful eastern media or listen to our politicians, it becomes clear that Canadians want social workers with guns they'll never use, not warriors.
So let's decide. If we want warriors, then let's create an Armed Forces that can fight, anywhere, anytime to fulfil our obligations to our allies, to history, to ourselves. If not, then let us quit pretending.
Lay our soldiers off.
Find out if any other nation is as dumb as we are, and see if we can't unload our used equipment on them. Keep a couple of hundred guys in red tunics and bearskin hats around to march on Parliament Hill to be inspected by visiting heads of state.
We wouldn't even need soldiers for that.
We could hire drama students on summer vacation.
If we disband our Armed Forces quietly enough who knows?
Maybe our allies won't even notice.
I'm pretty sure the Liberals and huge chunks of the public wouldn't.
Sun, October 31, 2004
Canada crippled by dishonest pacifism
By Ian Robinson
Lies are not always a bad thing.
They hold together everything from marriages to sanity, careers to nations.
"Do you think she's pretty?"
The truthful answer to this question, when posed by a wife, is not a good thing. The truthful answer might well be:
"Pretty? Dear God. That woman is so beautiful, sexy and desirable that if she was to so much as hint to me that she would be mine, I would abandon you and our offspring to struggle in poverty while I pillaged the children's college funds to try to purchase her favour with shiny trinkets."
So you lie. If you've been married for a while, you know the best lie isn't: "No, I do not think she's pretty."
The lie that really gets you off the hook is: "Who? What?" -- delivered with a slightly distracted look.
Perhaps the most famous of the marriage-saving lies: "Of course I believe you ... Dar'."
Who among us could bear to live another day if we didn't lie to ourselves?
Guys without friends think of themselves as romantic loners instead of guys without friends. And the romantic loners who tip the scales at better than 250 lb. are "big-boned romantic loners" instead of "fat guys without friends."
And nobody who has been gainfully employed for longer than seven days has managed to last that long without lying.
"No sir! I wouldn't mind wearing that paper hat and coming home every night smelling like french fries cooked in boiling hydrogenated fats."
"Wow! A 'sales associate vest' made entirely from polyester with the word 'Quality' on the back? Cool."
Lies also hold together nations. But this is where the lies start to do real damage. These aren't polite fictions that get us through the day. These are lies that kill.
The biggest Canadian lie in circulation currently is that, as a nation, we care about the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces.
We don't.
If we did, we would ensure that they were armed with proven gear and a clear mission in keeping with their role as warriors.
If we cared, we wouldn't keep electing Liberal governments that treat the military like a mad aunt chained in the attic. You inherited her, she's family, you'll keep her fed and clothed -- barely -- but you don't invite her down to take dinner with the family.
We blow a billion at Tony's House of Leaky Submersibles, not because they're needed, but because the Liberal government, uncomfortable with global realities that require a moral nation to take its place shoulder-to-shoulder with its allies, lacks the fortitude to see its sons and daughters coming home from foreign climes in body bags.
In a war against al-Qaida, sailors are among the least likely to die. Unless, of course, you bought used submarines from Tony Blair.
When a Canadian soldier, sailor or airman dies, politicians trot out the platitudes, the flag-draped coffins are off-loaded from one of our few airworthy planes, and our phoney compassion is buried with them.
Canada has become a nation crippled by a dishonest pacifism. Rather than announce we're wimps, we pretend in the councils of the powerful that we'll send our soldiers to fight ... but only if the stars are aligned just so.
We'll send "peacekeepers," an abominable word that denies the reality that it is only the application of brute and vicious force in the disordered and deadly precincts of the world that can ensure peace.
If you read the commentary in the powerful eastern media or listen to our politicians, it becomes clear that Canadians want social workers with guns they'll never use, not warriors.
So let's decide. If we want warriors, then let's create an Armed Forces that can fight, anywhere, anytime to fulfil our obligations to our allies, to history, to ourselves. If not, then let us quit pretending.
Lay our soldiers off.
Find out if any other nation is as dumb as we are, and see if we can't unload our used equipment on them. Keep a couple of hundred guys in red tunics and bearskin hats around to march on Parliament Hill to be inspected by visiting heads of state.
We wouldn't even need soldiers for that.
We could hire drama students on summer vacation.
If we disband our Armed Forces quietly enough who knows?
Maybe our allies won't even notice.
I'm pretty sure the Liberals and huge chunks of the public wouldn't.