New Media

Even the most die-hard Canadian neocons have pretty much washed their hands of George Bush Jr. and his disastrous legacy, if only to salvage their own credibility. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I was on the fence when Bush beat Gore as to whether he’d make a good president. Frankly, before 9/11, it didn’t really seem to matter who got in).

Some have gone to the extent of denying Bush true political conservative status. It certainly is possible to make such an argument. But I suspect the impetus for such denials stem from a sort of a twisted counterpoint to Muslims who deny the existence of Islamic terror by simply stating that anyone who commits terrorist acts in the name of Allah cannot possibly be a true Muslim.

Any lingering sympathy by some (but by no means all) Canadian Conservatives for the current Republican administration should be pretty much dealt a death blow by the Bush-ites latest blunder: trying to list the sovereign and official military forces of the Iranian Republican Guard as a terrorist group.

Declaring a War on Terror was a big enough blunder (As BC columnist Norman Spector would say, why not declare war on armored personnel carriers? How about declaring war on flanking movements?). But to compound the error (and the English language’s misery), the Bush administration is now in the business of equating the armed forces of a major regional power with the Shining Path guerrillas or the Red Brigades.

The consequences of such idiocy are as clear as they are lethal (potentially, for the entire planet).

The world knows that Canada is America’s friend. Friends don’t let friends start world wars.

Venezuela committed suicide today.

To broad public applause (since opposition parties and private dissent are essentially outlawed) Venezuela’s legislators voted unanimously to give President Hugo Chavez the right to rule the country by presidential decree.

Living in Canada, where the election of a non-status quo governing party starts panicked citizens into a rant in all forms of media against the oncoming totalitarian order, it’s hard to imagine an officially democratic country essentially handing over the reigns of government to a single person – in particular, a cartoonish sloganeering Castro-style socialist who previously attempted to take over the country in a decidedly undemocratic (and failed) coup. But that’s exactly what Venezuela has done.

This doesn’t mean the end of Venezuela as a country. But it does mean the end of Venezuela as the kind of country where anyone with a brain and a hope for the future would want to live.

Unfortunately, some Vancouverites are still taken in by the argument that anyone who is against US President George Bush must be a good guy – and anyone against Chavez is by default a war-mongering, baby-killing stooge. Hopefully, even these useful idiots will see the light as Chavez’ regime goes from bad to worse to Cuba.

George Bush Jr. seems to have lost all grip on reality, Then again, perhaps it’s just his sense of hearing.

Criticizing the critics of his “new” surge strategy for Iraq, he and former presidential hopeful, now self-sabotaged fellow Republican John McCain are asking the opposition pundits what their plan is.

Perhaps they haven’t been listening. Get the troops out now. That’s been the critics’ plan from day one. It wasn’t a good option four years ago.

A lot can change in four years.

Notwithstanding some local Vancouver pundits’ assertion that Saddam Hussein’s hanging was unjust (question: who really, really cares if it was all completely by the book?), the tyrant is dead. That should have given Bush an out. Instead, the date came and went and now it’s just another day in a very bad couple of years.

Yes, the security situation will probably get worse if they pull out. The country could be mired in violence and chaos for decades. Millions could die.

But after four years of war, it’s clear what the trend is going towards. Keeping US forces in Iraq is just postponing the inevitable.

Saddam Hussein is dead.

Plenty of people in the Middle East and at least one cranky Vancouverite seem a little choked up that Iraqis in Baghdad had the bad taste to dance in the streets as the old dictator’s corpse was still hanging from the gallows.

Will Saddam’s death make a dent in the chaos in Iraq? Hopefully yes, but probably not. And if the country’s fragile democracy falls to thugs and demagogues like the old Weimar Republic that ultimately gave way to the Nazis, the US will count the brutal tyrant’s demise as it’s only achieved mission objective.

That’s a $354 billion (and counting) whacking.

At least things in Iraq can only get better. Well, one can hope.

Threats against Iran. Talks with the UN. More threats. A Middle East war. A ceasefire. More talks.

That’s pretty much where we’re at with Iran and the nuclear genie. Three months after I wrote on this topic from Vancouver’s Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (read the link here) things are pretty much where I left them.

Deadlines come and go and the media attention on this topic seems to rise and fall (but never entirely dissipate) and my views haven’t changed.

Yes, Iran is run by religious zealots and their front man, President Ahmadinejad, is constantly hinting at a genocidal attack on the Zionist Entity (who knew that the word “Israel” was so difficult for people to pronounce?) Yes, Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. And, yes, Iran’s human rights record stinks.

But the world needs energy. Iran’s oil reserves are not endless. Its people will not willingly go back to living in caves and tents in a few decades as the wells run dry. Since there aren’t any Niagara Falls-sized hydroelectric projects in the works in what is a region of rocks and deserts, nuclear energy is the only option for Iranian energy self-sufficiency over the long term.

Iran will get nuclear power. It may get the bomb as well, but there is nothing the world can do about that. Pakistan and North Korea were able to do it at a time when masses of their populations were repressed and literally starving. Iran, with its oil wealth and educated population, can do the same if it wants.

The international community, including Canada, can and should condemn Iran’s government based on its human rights record. This, more than anything, could lead to a perestroika for Iran. Making threats without the ability to back them up just makes the international community (in particular, Western countries) look weak and foolish.

tags: Iran nuclear, Middle East oil, Israel genocide, Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, CANDU