Media cheerleaders miss story
TORONTO, ONTARIO – To listen to the media tell it, Canada scored a victory last week at the NATO summit. We got the extra 1,000 troops that the Harper government said were needed to continue our involvement in the Afghan war.
So the fact that we’re going to continue to fight in Afghanistan – which most Canadians oppose, according to the polls – has been transformed into a victory. We did it! We got the extra troops for a war Canadians don’t want! Bravo!
Actually, the media have confused the Harper government achieving its own objectives with the national interest being advanced.
Yes, the staunchly pro-Washington Harper government cleverly manipulated the weak Liberal opposition into supporting the Afghan military venture, largely by presenting it as an international duty mandated by NATO.
In fact, the countries that make up NATO have no more interest in fighting in Afghanistan than the Canadian public does, which is why the 1,000 extra troops are coming from the United States – the one country that is keen to fight over there.
But our media turned the situation into a mini-drama: Would Harper succeed at NATO or wouldn’t he? It was easy to lose sight of the real story: The U.S. has succeeded in getting Canada to be its lead partner fighting an unpopular counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan.
In fact, the Harper government has recently made two agreements that have quietly moved us into deeper co-operation with the U.S. military and U.S. foreign policy.
Canada and the U.S. have signed a military agreement, called the Civil Assistance Plan, under which troops can cross the border to help out during an emergency, such as a terrorist attack.
The prospect of U.S. troops in Canada wouldn’t sit well with many Canadians, which explains why Ottawa decided not to publicly announce the agreement, signed by U.S. and Canadian generals in Texas on Feb. 14. (The U.S. military issued a press release, however, and Canada followed a week later with an announcement in an internal military publication.)
. . . CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE .
Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/yd5786c
