Ignore FOX News At Your Own Peril, Says Former Canadian Defence Attaché

Another embarrassing grovelling suckup! He must want a high position in NORAD or NORTHCOM or something.

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Dave Ruston

I don't think that's a bad idea, we've seen the result of what american propaganda can do, and relations with the US are pretty dicey. While Fox news is a waste of time unless you subscribe to their point of view, I would definitely have a presence in other venues.

>> On missile defence, Rear-Admiral Mack says his personal opinion is that Canada should have signed up for it because it would offer the opportunity to be in control. "If anyone shoots a missile at Chicago, how do you know it's not going to land in Canada?" he asked. By not agreeing to missile defence, Canadian industries have missed out on opportunities in research, he says. <<

The U.S. informs its allies but does not consult them.

What would be different with the Missile Shield Program?

As to the Missile shield program Canada has not been asked to supply any money or land to base missile defenses, but it has agreed to share NORAD data, which the United States owns and has already, to help the plan.

The North American Aerospace Command is a joint U.S.-Canadian military operation, but mainly run by the U.S. Government, that dates back to the Cold War to monitor missiles, aircraft and space objects and warn of threats to the continent.

"We think it's in Canada's sovereign interest to be in the room to decide what's going to happen when there's an incoming missile," said Ambassador Paul Cellucci.

Does anyone really think that with the speed that ICBM’s fly that they are so slow that there is going to be a discussion over whether to shoot it down? I think not! We will be lucky to get a call even if know about it.

Let’s face it, the missile, no matter how you calculate it, if detected soon enough to intercept it will be intercepted over Canadian territory and the impact or fall out lands on Canada and the people of Canada. That’s if the system works. Not on the United States of America or on American citizens! So why is it important that Canada signs on or not?

>> However, he also says that the U.S. respects Canada's military, "even our Sea Kings." He added that Americans recognize Canada's help in making their country coalition-savvy and that there is an appreciation when Canada offers help, because it does so without any partisan agenda. <<

Canada went down the road to peacekeeping because the United States encouraged Canada to do so saying the next War would be nuclear war fought with ICBM’s and they would defend North America not Canada. Yet, now the U.S. condemns Canada for the size of its military.

Canada bought F-18 fighter aircraft from the United States to defend Canadian sovereignty and support the NORAD agreement. The U.S. government refused to sell the cockpit High Tech. weapon systems for them. Why? Canada was not a secure ally in the eyes of the United States of America. At this particular time Canada was considered the United States best friend and ally.

When a RCAF Pilot won the TOP GUN trophy in the U.S. during the 90's it was argued that it was unfair that this Canadian Pilot was flying a plane in competition that did not have the same equipment as the U.S. Pilots planes.

Lets get past all these political niceties and start working on the true foundations of American beliefs and what they really think of Canada and Canadians.

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Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.

Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.

This Warlord is covering up his own rear, as in "Rear-Admiral".

The US "expects" Canada to do this and that and just toe the line with them? Maybe Canada should be more blunt and tell the US sometimes that we are not necessarily their ally.

A Dutch idiom states: "A good neigbour is better than a far away friend."

Canada is in geographical terms a neigbour of the US, so we cannot change that. But we do not have to be a friend as well, particularly if it continually causes us harm.

I read this comment with interest, jensonj, but your last sentence left me hanging! What DO they really think of Canada and Canadians? My sense - after the softwood disagreement - is that they see us as a pathetic bunch of suckers who love getting screwed economically. I have yet to see a Prime Minister do anything but reinforce that image so who can blame them for treating us like Kleenex?

I'm not at all sure what you mean by that last sentence, though.

I frequently listen to Fox Television, but I do so with an informed mind, realizing that I am listening to one very narrow far right interpretation of events, not to an accurate, dispassionately factual reporting of the news.

It is very useful to understand how others of differing political, ethnic, religious and ideological persuasions think, and how they percieve you and your values. It is only in this fashion that you can test the merits of your own beliefs.

Nothing I have seen on Fox or elsewhere has convinced me that there is anything at all of any value for most people in the neo-conservative economic or social agenda so prevalent in the western world these days. To me it remains hollow, barren, greedy, elitist, bloodthirsty and dangerous. I think of it as the mad model, and wish it would disappear.

I think we also have to move beyond the pervasive foolishness that if we do not share the American world view, if we do not blindy follow their foreign policy initiatives or be subservient to their economic dominance, that we are somhow inferior or that we are
anti-American. That is not true.

Friends can be very different, and friends can disagree profoundly. If they can't, they are not friends.
I am very uncomfortable with America's right wing politics, and shudder at many of the things they do abroad. But I do not hate America or Americans, or wish them any harm. I don't always agree with them, but I am most certainly not anti-American. There really is an enormous difference, even though the wretched neo-cons refuse to see it or admit it.

I have always admired much about the US and their culture, specifically their energy, their initiative and above all their patriotism. I have relatives and many, many good friends there. I go as often as I can

I love to visit them and talk with them, I love baseball and country music, and who couldn't love Disneyland! I don't want to be a mad ideologue or a right wing extremist in order to do these things and I shouldn't have to be. They will change too eventually, there are hopeful signs already.

In the meanwhile, Canada simply has to asert more popular control over its own miserable greed community and develop a more mature relationship with our big southern neighbour. We have to learn to stand up for ourselves and our citizens, even when its unpopular and difficult. In the longer term the Americans would learn to respect us more, treat us more fairly and our relationship with them would be better than ever. But how do you sell common sense to those of our own people whose every thought is greed? That's our biggest challenge.

And listen up out there you Fox folks. Canadians many not like your politics, but THEY ARE DEFINITELY NOT ANTI-AMERICAN. PERIOD..GIVE IT UP ALREADY!...................

A Canadian idiom is : good fences make good neighbours !

"Fox News" is a different channel from "Fox (television)". You can only get it in Canada by subscription. This may be the source of your confusion.


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

People in various professions are brothers under the skin. Professional officers think, talk and act alike in all countries, regardless of race, colour and creed, just as dentists, priests, or stockmarket speculators do.

Professional officers, again, would be just as happy to execute the deserters of the other side, as their own side would, considering them cowardly traitors, not fit to live.
Many examples in history.E.G. The Canadian army supplied rifles to a German POW execution squad to execute 2 German deserters, sentenced to death by a nazi court martial in a POW camp in Holland, after the war was over.

On the other hand, professional officers and military, through history, have also been the largest sector of turncoats, many times during battles, turning against their own sides and allies.

The East and West German armies have been set up and led by former nazi officers and NCOs and when the nazis started recruiting Soviet POWs into the German army, 1.5 million volunteered, many of them officers and NCOs, under general Vlasov, who defended Leningrad, but was later captured. The resulting Russian army under German command were only a few thousand, ending the war in Klagenfurt, Austria, from where many were forcibly repatriated to their deaths by the British, including Vlasov and many of their families.

The admiral admires the US military from the professional angle and his opinions are based on his wish to shoot off rockets. The bigger the better and anybody who gets in the way is a traitor. It is that simple.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.

>>Canada simply has to asert more popular control over its own miserable greed community and develop a more mature relationship with our big southern neighbour. We have to learn to stand up for ourselves and our citizens, even when its unpopular and difficult. In the longer term the Americans would learn to respect us more, treat us more fairly and our relationship with them would be better than ever. But how do you sell common sense to those of our own people whose every thought is greed? That's our biggest challenge.<<

I couldn't have said it better!


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Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.

Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.

>>Lets get past all these political niceties and start working on the true foundations of American beliefs and what they really think of Canada and Canadians.<<

When the U.S. Administration wants something from another Country it says all these nice things about friendship, shared values, beliefs, similarities and foundations.

exp; Beginning of the Iraq War, Bush said about Britain that no other country in the world is a truer friend and ally to the United States of America the next month in Australia Bush said that Australia was America's closest friend and ally with shared values and beliefs.

These are all the same things that have been said about Canada.

Ambassador Cellucci trashed Canada and Canadians for not supporting the United States in Iraq which was not true. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien at the time had arranged that the UN would support the US war in Iraq if Bush would wait 11 days. Bush announced he would not wait and that you were with him or against him and trashed Chrétien for interfering.

At the same time Prime Minister Jean Chrétien put a paper to the UN that would put rules to dealing with and allow international military intervention against nations that abused their people and committed crimes against humanity etc.

Bush vetoed the plan in the UN because it would prevent any one country from act alone and independent from the UN and Canadian's were a bunch of pacifist’s.

Now we have an energy need in the US and Canada is America's friend and ally again. America now wants new treaties on Canadian Energy supplies.

So where does Canada really stand. What do they, Americans, truly believe about Canada and Canadians? What true value is our relationship with the Administration and the people? Are Canadians really that similar or are we our own people.

And finally how do you trust a country and a people who support an administration that undermine your country's soverignty trade agreements.

exp; The U.S. Department of Commerce "understands that the laws and treaties make it impossible for Canada to `win' in the real world, even if they win every time in court. It takes years to get through the courts, and by the time you do, the tariffs, duties and quotas the U.S. has imposed have completely wrecked the targeted industry in Canada. So who cares what the courts say."

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Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.

Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.

The reason the U.S. treats Canada like nothing, is because you ARE nothing. If Canada didn't exist, it would not affect the world at all. I'm sorry. I meant, "If Canada didn't exist, there would be less hatred in the world".

Is this the sort of stuff you are telling me is featured on the Fox News? Some, perhaps even many, Canadians do deeply dislike much of America's far right politics, and their senseless, bloody overseas adventures. That I think is understandable and maybe even justified.

But there is no country in the whole world, I repeat no country in the whole world where the friendship of America and Americans is more valued today than it is in Canada. There is no country in the whole world which is more helpful and economically co-operative with the United States than Canada.

Americans are safe and welcome here. Tell me where else outside of the US is that true today. Who ships you half of their own our precious oil and forces their own people to pay the same outrageous prices as you do in order to keep up your supply? Who gives you more energy products than Saudi Arabia and Iraq together, and at better prices? Could it be Canada?

What other country covers up and excuses more of the outrages you commit against their own citizens than Canada does? Where else can your cultural products take precedence over every shred of domestic material --- except in Canada.

Who frequently ignores the needs of their own citizens to make common cause with your predatory corporate oligarchs? Why, its Canada of course. Your right-wingers may find ideological soulmates among the cruel, and the greedy anywhere in the world, but you will never, ever find a better real friend than Canada. And even with the high price we pay for that, most of us still think its worth it.

We too have our right wingers, we have the selfish, the racist, the mean and the intolerant. Sometimes their shrieking voices seem to be the only ones heard... But I think I can say with utter sincerity and a great deal of truth that there is almost nowhere else in this world where hatred is less common and less virulent than it is in Canada, and where hatred of Americans is virtually unknown. Disagreement yes, often. Disgust sometimes, yes. Hatred, almost never.

If you think Canada is a land of hate, you know absolutely nothing about it and you are dead damned wrong.

Excuse me?

www . boreme.com/boreme/funny-2005/fox-canada-p1.php

Note how the Canadian politician handles the constant abuse she receives. I am proud of her.