Canadian Foreign Policy

[sexual_chocolate]

he reads the op/ed page of the wall street journal.

[underworld]

that, and canadians don't have guns... and it's too warm there to bore them to death w/ curling.

[murraysovereign]

Canadian forces have yet to inadvertently kill any civilians in the course of their operations in Afghanistan. . .

 

And you know this is factually accurate how?

 

I'm pretty sure there have been no accidental civilian casualties resulting from combat operations, but there have been one or two fatalities from traffic accidents involving Canadian armoured vehicles. So we have killed civilians, we just haven't done it by shooting them or blowing them up. Not yet. But in that environment, the day will inevitably come.

[rbw1966]

Ok--so no 'accidental' civilian casualties. What about intended civilian casualties? I find it hard to believe that in the middle of combat operations not one civilian has been killed.

 

But then again, these are Canadians. What exactly are they doing over there? Teaching them to grow weed?

[G-spotter]

Shit man, in Canadian newspapers they print how many civilian casualties our forces are racking up, right next to the hockey scores on the sports page. (Go Oilers!)

[sexual_chocolate]

I don't think the Canadians are allowed to carry guns in Afghanistan, are they?

[minx]

does canada actually need a foreign policy? who cares what canada thinks?

[cj001f]

(Go Oilers!)

The Hockey Team? Or is that how you cheer on the soldierS?

[JayB]

Canadian forces have yet to inadvertently kill any civilians in the course of their operations in Afghanistan. . .

 

And you know this is factually accurate how?

 

Just following the news. Never encountered any stories of such events happening, and given the scale and tempo of Canadian deployments there, it seems unlikely that incidents where several civilians are killed at once will occur, and it's still more unlikely that such killings would occur with the frequency and scale that would be likely to serve as an effective transnational rallying cry for a Jihad against Canada.

 

My larger point here is that for some reason people assume that Islamist's agenda is limited to reacting to specific, concrete grievances that have their origin in particular elements of US or Western foreign policy. This is certainly part of the story, but if you aquaint yourself with the history of the Islamic peoples and the terrorist's own literature it's clear that the sense of grievance that animates most Muslims has roots that go back for centuries, and the scope of the policy objectives that Islamic terrorists are persuing is much grander than simple retribution in response to Western policies of the last 30 years or so.

 

Albert Hourani's "A History of the Arab Peoples" is a good place to start for anyone interested in a general history.

[archenemy]

 

My larger point here is that for some reason people assume that Islamist's agenda is limited to reacting to specific, concrete grievances that have their origin in particular elements of US or Western foreign policy. This is certainly part of the story, but if you aquaint yourself with the history of the Islamic peoples and the terrorist's own literature it's clear that the sense of grievance that animates most Muslims has roots that go back for centuries, and the scope of the policy objectives that Islamic terrorists are persuing is much grander than simple retribution in response to Western policies of the last 30 years or so.

Certainly you are not arrogant enough to assume this is new information or brilliant insight.

[JayB]

Not claiming either - but a contrary view seems to dominate the popular commentary around the world.

[sexual_chocolate]

Are you trying to say that this point has been made before?

Maybe it has something to do with a news cycle shift or something, like breaking news timed to arrive after punditry class lets out.

[archenemy]

Or perhaps its just easier for people to talk about the near history. Firstly, we (as Americans--I can't speak to commentary from the rest of the world) don't have a cultural history of 1000's of years, so its hard to relate. And secondly, most of us are still rightly pissed that they attacked us.

[sexual_chocolate]

Who's "they"?

[archenemy]

Who's "they"?

Um, terrorists.

Certainly you heard about it...

[sexual_chocolate]

oh i thought we were talking about muslims, and their beefs from antiquity keeping them from living in the new world order and such....

[archenemy]

The sentence starts talking about "people assume".

I am addressing some possible reasons for why those assumptions may come into play. Try to follow along.

[sexual_chocolate]

Sounds like a bit of an assumption, no?

[archenemy]

Are you posting to the wrong thread? Or is the following along request just too much...

[sexual_chocolate]

it does indeed seem as though you are having trouble....