Unleash The Dogs Of War ... And Internal Hatred

Christians across the country should think very deeply about the link between the “hate thy neighbour” business organizations and fundamentalist Christian organizations in Canada (some of which have been undergoing transformation into business organizations selling Christ). U.S. fundamentalist Christian organizations – hooked too close to Canada now and historically – urge their fellow Canadian “Christians” to work for the death penalty, to fight same sex marriage, to equate Christianity with the Capitalist State (especially the U.S. Capitalist State), and to urge male domination in the family. Unfortunately, the U.S. State is an expansionist, military, and racist entity presently hiding its dreams of domination behind the plea of a Christian mission to save the world. Canadian fundamentalists listen, but they still draw back from the seductions of their U.S. cousins, at least somewhat That is not new. The relation is historical. Nearly 150 years ago, for instance, not long after its (1844) founding in England and its taking root (1851) in Canada, a Young Mens’ Christian Association convention was organized in the U.S. Canadian delegates were invited, and some went. But in protest against U.S. racism, which excluded any Black participation at the convention, the Canadians sat in the gallery as observers. They wouldn’t take part in the proceedings. More and more in the present day, U.S. fundamentalists are engaging in Canadian politics, coming to Canada to preach, spreading the “hate thy neighbour” message. They are, alas, being listened to, at least somewhat. U.S. fundamentalist Tony Perkins heads an organization forging links with Canadian fundamentalists (Sun July 30 05 C3). Perkins makes clear he believes “homosexuals are prone to brutal violence”. That’s just one face of the U.S. “hate thy neighbour” pressure on Canadians. (Maybe Perkins should suggest - if he really believes they are all “prone to brutal violence” - that homosexuals go as U.S. soldiers to fight in Iraq.) Another face of the “hate thy neighbour” message comes from within Canada – but with a close connection to the U.S. For more than 60 years the Canadian military has been altogether too close to the U.S. military. “North American Defense” has always meant various kinds of partnership and integration with U.S. weaponry, training procedures, and - as General Rick Hillier has been showing – state of mind. Paul Martin, sadly, has defended Hillier’s brainless yawping. That is sad because military generals are public servants on public payroll who should serve, be publicly tactful, and remain prudently quiet. They should not make major (or even minor) statements of policy. That is the job of the general’s political bosses who have been elected to their offices by the Canadian people. When general Hillier says the “terrorists” are “detestable murderers and scumbags”, he is making a political statement intended to shape Canadian belief. As he is when he pontificates that “they want to break our society….” Whatever Paul Martin says publicly in Hillier’s defense, privately he should tell him to shut his trap. Let us pray he has done so. 50 years ago the head officer of the Canadian armed forces would not have been caught dead engaging in such (it has to be said) yankee-style huffing and puffing. Hillier might be called a “hate thy neighbour” military fundamentalist. We don’t need him. We don’t need him because he feeds all the “hate thy neighbour” forces in the country. David Warren, Right columnist for CanWest Media (there are only Right columnists in the CanWest Media) equates – with matchless irresponsibility – Iraq, Iran, and North Korea with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and militarist Japan. (Sun July 29 05f A15) Warren tells his readers the use of terror is fine when nice people use it. And he tells us it’s time to be plain. The enemy now is the Islamists, as the enemy was once the Nazis. Warren is modestly supported by modest, reactionary columnist Norman Spector. In his modest way Spector leans on unapprehended war criminal Tony Blair, England’s prime minister, for his modest pleas to hate thy neighbour. “Blair is right,” Spector says, “to suggest that ultimately the question comes down to whether you can appease al-Quida and its sympathizers or must fight them”. (Sun July 29 05 A15) No, it doesn’t come down to that, Norm. There’s the possibility of changes in policies and actions that give confidence to Muslims and all the people of the Middle East that “hate thy neighbour” policies are not rooted ineradicably in the West. That need be neither a matter of appeasement nor of war. No, Norm. Tony Blair is not right in that statement, just as he is not right in most of the foreign policy statements he makes. Jingoist and war-monger Andrew Cohen (CanWest columnist, of course) teaches journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa. He tells us how silly and naïve Canadians are (Victoria Times Colonist July 6 05 A10). They don’t want their soldiers killed and wounded. Foolish Canadians! Canadian soldiers as peace keepers, Cohen calls “boy scouts and do-gooders”. And he calls our respect for them “this great delusion”. Then he engages in a typical half-truth. “Canada is in Kandahar” [Afghanistan] he writes, “to do the work of nation-building, helping a shattered society rebuild itself. It is honourable work, shared by the Norwegians, the Japanese, the Germans and other high-minded democracies.” Holy mackeral. Statements like that make you warm all over, don’t they, false as they are. The other half of the truth is that Canada got into Afghanistan as a pay-off to the U.S. after refusing to go into Iraq with the illegal warriors. Canada is part of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. High-minded Canada may partly be, but it can’t escape, in reasonable minds, the charge of carrying the can for expansionist, meddling, regime-change loving U.S.A. Afghanistan is a shattered society” needing to “rebuild itself” in very large part because the U.S. supplied and equipped every thug it could find in Afghanistan to fight the Russians in the same honeymoon days the U.S. admired and helped guess who – the poster boy terrorist of the world - Osama bin laden. Put it all together. Who wants to change Canada, to tear the Canadian fabric of generosity, of desire for good in the world combined with impatience at narrow, jingoist preaching? Start with business groups lashed to the U.S. Market Economy in the Market Colony. Go on to U.S.-bonded Canadian Christian fundamentalists of the “hate-they-neighbour” sort. Then add the big and monopoly press and media – especially CanWest in Canada and its endless parade of “hate thy neighbour” war mongers. From there visit every statement by Right Wing think tanks in Canada whose fundamental message is “go to war”, “hate thy neighbour”, “if your neighbour is Canadian, dump him (her) in the sewer; if outside Canada, get used to the fact you have to kill him (her)”. That message is not spoken, but blurted out by U.S-clone militarist, Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian forces. In the background it is repeated by politicians of the Stephen Harper, Stockwell Day, Preston Manning persuasion. Even Paul Martin talks complete babble when he says the Canadian Afghanistan forces are filling an “international responsibility” to be part of the war on terrorism. Think of Canadians. Think of them squeezed between those jingo, “hate thy neighbour” lying, un-Christian forces. Think of the Canadians making choices. That the Canadians make choices that contradict all the indoctrinators, the propagandists, and Bushfire clones is a huge testimony to the fact that there are Canadian traditions of decency and good will and that they won’t break or tear irreparably in the face of the preachers of hate pushing on them from all sides. They will tear, as they have been torn for over 200 years. But they will mend, as they have mended over 200 years. And when the Market Economy thugs are finally put into retreat, at the head of the army (of salvation) putting the thugs to rout, you will find (as sure as God made little apples) Canadians. Knowing that does make you feel all warm inside, doesn’t it? [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 3, 2005]