When you are habitually in the forefront of defending western civilization without much damn support, that’s the way you tend to feel, and don’t forget that adult conservative government in Canada is a fairly recent development. I lived in Canada for nearly 20 years as an American and I have great respect and love for Canada and Canadians (married to one, actually). But you should not presume to tell the big dog how to behave graciously until you have been that big dog, out on point, by yourself.

ps. Don’t bother telling me how the Canadian Navy almost won the battle of the Atlantic by itself before the Americans came in because… you’re right! My father-in-law was there, and the only reason my own father was a little late to the game was because of isolationists, who would be right at home in the ‘Rat party today!

Canada had a right to complain. Only the US, UK, and the Dutch have shouldered the large part of the combat operations, while the rest of NATO has limited their involvement to non-combat tasks. With Canada taking casualties, their citizens began to wonder why more of its allies didn’t have the same level of commitment. France, in a surprising development, agreed with Canada and agreed to bolster its own combat commitment and has tried to get more European nations to follow suit.

Boy, if this is the beginning of a trend (and since it isn’t the evil, wicked US that is bringing this pressure perhaps another European country or two may follow France’s lead) who will Obama have to apologize to should he, heaven forfend, get elected? Ok, there’s always Belgium, but doesn’t this kind of belie the conventional liberal wisdom that everything we are trying to accomplish in the Iraq is reviled throughout the length and breadth of Europe?

“We’ll fight the bastards over here, you fight their ideological brethren back in Canada.”

RushBaby on March 13,2008 at 10:50PM

RushBaby:Thank-you very much for those kind words about my
family and Canada,much appreciated,I’m working
on the anthem,and RushBaby thank-you again.

HotAir doesn’t quite get it right – but Canada has put forth a conditional double down,…

Your welcome.
Now help us out with a half dozen helicopters. Were getting wasted out there with the I.E.D.’s.
Trying to buy some, but we have to wait in line.

A little help?????

Western Canadian on March 14, 2008 at 7:41 AM

I would recommend either the Apache attack helicopter or the Zulu Supercobra – GREAT MACHINES!!

A little help?????

Sombody pee in your Wheaties aengus?

Haha. Yeah, somebody peed in my Wheaties bigtime. But my comment still stands.

Canadians think of this as a continuation of a long Canadian tradition as being peace keepers (though here the mission is more about peace making than keeping). It’s more about “we’ve got to help those people” as opposed to “we have to meet our obligations to the Americans so that they relax their illegal tarrifs on our lumber”.

I honestly don’t know why our government hasn’t pulled its troops yet. I sure like to see the Taliban cockroaches die, but I see no rationale for the average Canadian to continue to support this mission since it’s more about combat than reconstruction.

RushBaby the best rendition of the anthem was by Whitney Houston! And I mean the BEST. She put it at the top of the play lists on all radio stations. It was beautiful!

Proudvet on March 13, 2008 at 11:23 PM

I’ll check it out…the one I’m thinking of was sung at one of the Olympics.

Both Tories and Grits voted for the extension, also surprising given the controversy over the question. It shows a level of commitment…

Ed: There is a little more going on under the surface than this statement suggests. The Grits have been doing everything possible to avoid an election, as the party is low on cash, their poll numbers are down, and there is a growing sense that their leader has little competence. Further, PM Harper, who has shown himself to be quite shrewd on a number of occasions, chose, rather than one of his own MPs, a highly-regarded Liberal, a former MP and one-time candidate for the Liberal party leadership, to prepare the documentation on the Afghanistan mission. It was this fellow who endorsed the extended mission. So when it came to vote, the Liberals really had little option but to support the motion, as doing so would have meant triggering an election they could not win, and it would have meant showing ill-confidence in one of their own party members.

Some stand up comic, I don’t remember his name, but he was hilarious.

Somebody needs to chizel these words into ganite.

Next time I tie up along Jacksonville the Moose Milk is on me!

Jim708 on March 13, 2008 at 10:20 PM

Jim, just let me know, my e-mail is on my blog!

RushBaby the best rendition of the anthem was by Whitney Houston! And I mean the BEST. She put it at the top of the play lists on all radio stations. It was beautiful!

This is a good decision of their and laudable. But it’s a bit silly how on this site how, whenever a country’s government does something good, there’s talk about how the whole place is fantastic. And when a country’s government does something rotten, there’s talk about how all the people are cowards, vile, &c. (At its worst the word nuke gets invoked.)

Its beyond ridiculous. A mob mentality. That a country should only be supported because its a) winning or b) acting pro-American is arbitrary. We’re always hearing about how European countries are irredeemable because they have some connection to the Holocaust but one of the all-time worst collaborationist countries Poland NEVER receives any blame whatsoever because they’re sufficiently pro-American.

But again, a good and noble decision. (Maybe Prince Hal can join a Canadian brigade…)

On the plus side, I think this is the first time since Korea that our nations have actually engaged in extended combat together. The ChiComs can tell the Taliban what kind of bad news that is.