HATING BUSH IS UNHEALTHY
(It is US Democrats who have proved to be the fascists and imperialists)
DATELINE 7TH DECEMBER 2004
INTRODUCTION
As Ambassador James Bissett argues in this article published recently in the National Post of Canada, the Canadian Left’s hatred of George W Bush (like the same political clique in the United Kingdom) is not just unhealthy it is grossly hypocritical. We at Freenations note that it was the Democrat Bill Clinton who rejected Kyoto, bombed Iraq, refused to attack Bin Laden, introduced ruinous sanctions against Iraq, joined imperialist Germany in repeating the 1940s fascist destruction of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and invaded Haiti. It was the Democrat John F. Kennedy (whose father was a Nazi sympathiser) who pushed Britain into the corporatist/fascist European Union, supported an invasion of Cuba and threatened Moscow with nuclear destruction and of course it was the Democrat Lyndon Johnson who sent US troops to Vietnam. Quite a litany for the “peace party”! After the recent visit of George Bush to Canada Joe Bissett wrote:
Now that President Bush has left town, it might be a good time for Canadians to question why so many of our leading opinion makers are preoccupied by what they consider to be the errors and folly of the American President. There has never been an American President so maligned and apparently feared by Canadians as is George W Bush.
CBC announcers informed us how the poor citizens of Ottawa were inconvenienced by the visit when one or two streets were closed to traffic. These same commentators thought it newsworthy to warn drivers – almost as if it were a violation of civil liberties – that they were not allowed to park in front of the United States Embassy.
Before the visit, Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkin suggested that President Bush, “was a perfect candidate for prosecution under Canada’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act.” An e-mail message circulated by Elizabeth May, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, read as follows:” Bush represents Death. We call on Canadians to greet him by tying black crepe or cloth ribbon to everything in sight…park benches, our trees, our lampposts, car antennas, Xmas decorations, wear black arm bands…hold vigils, Pray.”
Such irrational behaviour is a disturbing manifestation of a growing anti – American psychosis spreading across the country. That it is championed by the CBC and one of our leading daily newspapers should be a matter of grave concern. Even more disturbing is the absence of any serious attempt to explain why Canadians should despise President Bush or why he is considered to be so much worse than his immediate predecessor, former President Bill Clinton.
Few seem to recall that it was during the Clinton presidency that the United States began in a systematic way to use its military power unilaterally and to turn its back on multilateralism and the United Nations.
It was president Clinton who first initiated the concept of missile defense and who violated the anti-ballistic treaty with Russia. It was Madeline Albright, president Clinton’s Secretary of State, who chastised Colin Powell for not making use of the awesome military power at his disposal to resolve international issues.
It was president Clinton who invaded Haiti in 1994, who launched missile strikes in 1998 against suspected Taliban targets in Afghanistan, whose cruise missiles in the same year destroyed an innocent pharmaceutical factory in Sudan
It was president Clinton who in 1998 bombed Iraq for violations of the no-fly zone and he did so without United Nations authorization. His Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, urged that economic sanctions against Iraq not be lifted until Sadaam Hussein was removed. This was the woman who answered,” Yes,” when asked if the bombing justified the killing of Iraqi babies.
It was president Clinton who intervened in the Bosnian civil war and who violated the arms embargo by providing modern military equipment to the Croatian and Muslim forces. He also arranged for hundreds of Mujihadeen fighters to be transported into Bosnia to fight against the Serbs. It was under president Clinton’s leadership in the spring of 1999 that NATO bombed Yugoslavia for reasons we now know were misleading. The bombing was conducted without United Nations authority.
President Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol but it was a hollow gesture since he didn’t bother to refer it to the Senate for ratification. It was president Clinton who demanded that the United States military be immune from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. Yet hundreds of Canadians lined up outside a Toronto book store to buy an autographed copy of his book.
Despite the record of the two presidents, it is Clinton who is revered and respected and Bush who is reviled and ridiculed. How can this be explained?
Part of the answer is because the liberal – left in Canada identify former president Clinton as one of their own. They would have us believe that he, unlike President Bush, only invaded countries or bombed people to spread democracy or to stop human rights abuses.
But it seems clear that the current wave of almost paranoid hatred of President Bush goes beyond personalities. The Bush obsession hides an even more dangerous hostility among much of the Canadian elite towards the United States itself. President Bush is only a convenient symbol of the deeply rooted resentment and envy of our powerful neighbour by a minority of Canadians. Unfortunately this minority is spearheaded by some of our leading opinion makers- our writers, our university professors, our journalists, our entertainers, our broadcasters and many of our elected representatives.
This is not a healthy situation and it bodes ill for the future of our country. It is time for these critics to grow up, to get real and to forget the United States. It can look after itself. Canada has a few of its own problems. Let’s attend to them for a change.
James Bissett
[Former Canadian Ambassador] Published in the National Post, Canda, Dec 2 2004
