I'm Canadian and I love the States. Great stock market, great music, great sitcoms. However, truth of the matter is that whether you are Pro Bush or not, it's the opinion of the nations outside of the US that matters most. Let me take the war in Iraq to prove my point. Canada's Prime Minister, Jean Chretien (pronounced John Cret-chee-an for anyone who hasn't taken French) publicly announced that Canada does not support the US lead coalition in the war. So as a result, Canada will now face economic fallout from that stance. That's the reality of it, and being a Canadian, it doesn't matter what I think of my PM. With Bush's push for a United Nations unsanctioned war, he disrupted years of relatively stable diplomatic goodwill. Fact of the matter is that most nations now look at Bush and the United States in bad light. Bush has managed to alienate the French, Russians, and Chinese. In addition to that, nations in the Middle East have an even poorer outlook on the US. Turkey for one now has to deal with the Kurds as a result of the Iraqi "liberation". Believe me that when you go against the UN, popular support is not on your side. Bush's administration has also hurt Canadian diplomatic relations by voting in protectionists legislation against BC softwood lumber. So in a bid to protect expensive and inefficient American logging businesses, American home builders now have to buy more expensive lumber for construction. This results in a loss to the American consumer. But he doesn't take note because his interest is in the forestry industry that helps fund his campaign. Add to this his decision to vote against the Kyoto agreement, an environmental green house gas emissions reduction program, and you've got a lot of countries that don't think very highly of him or the country. So to Jesse J. who thinks Bush is the best thing to come around since sliced bread, take a look outside your boarders and see the big picture. You're telling people on this thread to "LEARN TO PLAY BY THE RULES" and you're flaming mad that people don't accept that. However, Bush JUST BROKE ALL THE RULES by going against the UN and you're touting that he's a great man. Do you see how hypocritical you are? Bush is proud to be a leader of democracy and he is going to bring democracy to the Iraqi people by violating the democratic vote of the United Nations. In a era when people of the world strive towards peace, he initiates war with Iraq. And as a result, many unneccessary lives were lost. Bush has managed to make a lot of enemies for his country and at the same time, ignored the economic trouble that his nation is in. In my view, he hasn't increased the prosperity of the US IN or OUTside the nation, and that for me, is not a sign of an intelligent political leader. DNAJ65000
Bestseller success for anti-US war books Ed Vulliamy, New York Sunday April 20, 2003 Beneath the uniformity of a US media high on victory in Iraq, a wave of books of a heretical flavour is flooding the bestseller lists. At number five in the New York Times bestsellers and climbing Amazon's chart is The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a collection of essays by journalist Greg Palast, one of a triad known as the 'Angry White Men' - a play on the title at number six in the chart, Stupid White Men by film director Michael Moore, with 500,000 sales. The third in the 'axis of anti' is Noam Chomsky, whose controversial 9/11 - in which he calls America 'a leading terrorist state' - has 205,000 copies in print. The books are comfortably outselling titles which might seem at first to better reflect the zeitgeist, such as Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism and similar. Concluding his recent book tour, Moore said: 'I look out into the auditorium or gymnasium and I see Mr and Mrs Middle America, who voted for George W Bush and believed in the American dream as defined by the Bushes and Wall Street. Then they woke up to realise it was just that, a dream.' On Iraq, a number of fast-selling books have joined British writer Con Coughlin's Saddam: King of Terror with less conventional attacks not on the fallen tyrant but on America's war. They include Targeting Iraq: Sanctions, Bombing and US Policy by Geoff Simons and Gore Vidal's Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Bush-Cheney Junta . Palast's book - published by Pluto Press in Britain last year - is the latest to appear in America. Subtitled The Truth About Globalisation, Corporate Cons and High Finance Fraudsters, Moore endorsed it with an enthusiastic 'Read this book'. The essays include Palast's investigation into vote-rigging during the Florida campaign that won Bush the election and into the place where Americans fear to tread: alleged close ties between the Bush and bin Laden families. Once Palast's book was published in America, the media took a cue from Tony Blair's aide Alastair Campbell, who issued a political health warning on the author in Britain. Plans by CNBC television to have him as a commentator on the Phil Donahue chat show were reversed after one performance, following an internal company memo recommending against guests who were 'sceptical of the Bush administration' when 'other networks are taking every opportunity to wave the flag'. But his book is selling without the name recognition or marketing behind Moore and Chomsky. 'Michael Moore was the battering ram through the media Berlin Wall,' he said, 'and Chomsky and I are rushing through. 'There is a whole number of Americans who have been hypnotised, propagandised, and short-changed, who know something is wrong. Apparently the moment has come for the awful truth.'
get the fu** off this thread. "broke all the rules" by going against the UN"??? Aren't you embarrassed to say that? Yeah, we'll let france and germany dictate our security, yeah sure.
Nice well thought out reply Jesse J. A shallow intellect adopts the moniker of an outlaw and shouts at others to play by the rules
The Rock called me, his Number One Fan, as he was sitting by the massive swimming pool at his palatial estate in south Miami and asked me to respond to you: Do you think this great country is willing to turn its foreign policy over to a bunch of jabronis at the UN? A piece of trailer park trash like Jacques Chirac doesn't tell George Bush what to do. No, No , No, No, No. Indeed, "It doesn't matter what you think." The Rock will tell you what to think and the Rock says that his Millions and Millions of fans love this country, they love their SUV's, and they will slap the taste out of your mealy mouth if you try to talk that monkey crap about global warming, because that's what it is , monkey crap, and The Great One knows it. "Know your role, jabroni." Your role is to sit quietly and when you see the President of the United States of America on your 12 inch black and white tv with bent rabbit ears, you pay attention to him just as if The Great One was talking to you and if you dare frown or shake your misshapen head or , if you have totally taken leave of what little bit of brain matter is left in your lumpy head, go to a demonstration against ANYTHING he says, I will book you a room at the Smack Down Hotel, the one at the corner of Know Your Role Blvd. and Jabroni Ave, and get my buddy and great Amercian, Stone Cold Steve Austin, to come over with a case of whoop ass for you. If you smell what the Rock is cooking.
Why the heck are there so many lobotomized morons out there who expect the US to allow an emasculated joke of an organization like the United Nations dictate our national security policy? FWIW, I have a Canadian buddy who is ashamed of Chretien's stance. He knows that if Canada ever got into deep s**t the US would be there in a heartbeat to help. All you Bush-haters, do as Spinal Tap commands and SMELL THE GLOVE!!!
Human nature is to do things in one's best interest and as I'm reading your post, it sounds like that's what you're trying to say. The US made a pre-emptive strike to Iraq to protect its national security. Why listen to the UN if it's not their security on the line, right? By the same token, why would the US come to protect Canada if we got into trouble? What's in it for the US?
Which reminds me.... There is a certain man named Paul Desmarais, the head of one of the richest families in Canada. He sits on the Board of Paribas, Vivendi, as well as Total. He also owns a significant chunk of Total. This man's son, is married to a woman who happens to be the daughter of Jean Chretien. Who in turn happens to be the Prime Minister of Canada. Does that explain why Canada sat out the war?
why not allow everyone to vote either via the internet or telephone ?? technology exists that could eliminate fraud in this endeavour, then we could eliminate the electoral college. any thoughts ?? best, surfer