The reporter on our national news had a live interview with a white guy over in the Mid-East this evening, but it had to be cut short. Every question was loaded to point the finger of blame for the problems in the region to either Islam or Hezbollah and to paint them as some sort of devil or evil or other scary word. The interview wasn’t going well and didn’t last long as he kept saying that the only thing they and any one else (besides the Israeli’s) want in the region was peace. It had to be cut short after she asked in a sneering accusation whether he thought “if the Hezbollah could ever want peace†and he replied that not only the Hezbollah, but the entire region wants nothing but just that. The Hezbollah leader had his own rally today and unlike the Americans who cherish their weaponry, he said “We do not wish to keep our weapons forever because they should not be part of domestic lifeâ€.
And the talk of war and fighting words just keep on coming with every opportunity taken to instill unfounded fear in the population. One of the headlines for example: “US Draws First Blood at K Clubâ€. Folks, this is a headline about a GOLF GAME! The last 3 minutes of the broadcast was not a plea for peace from any front, but a homage to a US fighter jet being taken out of service and praising how great of a killing machine it was. This glorification of war is from a Canadian broadcaster? Then it was time for the six o’clock news, and the very first segment was about new rules for workers at the airport saying that they would no longer be able to take any liquids to the workplace because of fears that someone might make a bomb.
Of course nothing was said about the near impossibility it is for someone to successfully create one of these liquid bombs without laboratory conditions.
The Afghan President came over to repeat the talk of war under the guise of thanking Canadians for their support and to tell a few whoppers of his own, with Harper cheering him on in a Commons sprinkled with military uniforms. Am I still in Canada? One of his lines was that Afghanistan does not have goods to trade with the rest of the world, forgetting the poppy trade supported mainly by the USA for over 40 years and mainly beneficial to President Karzai’s banking cronies and business friends, and almost eradicated by the Taliban in 2001 before the US invasion according to UN reports, and of course not a hint about how both the east and west wish to use the country as the best route to pipeline oil to waiting tankers. No mention either of the fact that if they can grow poppies they could grow other things as well, but there is a lot more money to be made in the poppy business. In another interview he says Taliban resurgence has occurred “because we neglected their sanctuaries beyond our borders”, conveniently neglecting the fact that it is only one tiny area of Afghanistan that isn’t under the control of the Taliban and no consideration of the long history of the Pashtun and that the only way out is not killing millions of them along with their sons and daughters, but negotiating peace.
Later in the day Harper visited a pro-military rally where the colours were not of peace and justice such as green, blue or even heaven forbid white, but of a sea of red. Billed as a non-partisan rally, he still managed to denigrate the political opposition using the same nonsensical language of the neocon war mongers that if you don’t support the undeclared war we are now in, you don’t support the troops. Oh, and we’re going to be in this war for another 10 years with billions spent so far in just the first year, goodbye budget surpluses too. As Bob Dylan sang, “you don’t need a weather man to tell which way the wind blowsâ€.