Customer Reviews

Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire

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The phase that frequently appeared on my school reports, could equally well be applied to Canada. Repeatedly told that we don't matter and nobody listens to us, our actions indicate that we believe it. There is nothing that the bully to the south of us would like less than Ned Flanders as a neighbour. Yet where we could be a constant example of reasonableness and ethical behaviour, author Linda McQuaig illustrates how, even when we haven't joined in the bullying directly, we have held his coat while he did it. Under the guise of integration and cooperation etc. we are losing our identity in a quagmire of moral cowardice. We are not moderating American behaviour, we are condoning it. Time to stand on our own and call it like we see it.

Read for yourself. It is a good thing that books are published that question or criticize the 'official story', aka the CNN/FOX spun version of reality, where "humanitarian aid" means the bombing of civilians, where "spreading democracy" means illegal occupation. You're not being "anti-american" if you don't want to follow America into bogus wars of occupation and invasion, like the current "war on terror". Anti-american twaddle? Mcquaig points out specifically that she is not anti-american, but "anti-american-exceptionalist"-- why should the US have special rights, like the ability to pursue their own nuclear program while they go around seeing that other nations don't pursue theirs? That's just one example of how the american-exceptionalism. The list goes on, and on.

Why should Canadians be ashamed to want to be an internationally concerned and responsible country, instead of following in America's agressive-defensive ways? It is often said that we need the US to protect us, but I'd say that US foreign policy in the middle-east, and any Canadian affiliation with it, if anything, has made us a more desireable target of foreign attack.

Canadians: read Linda Mcquaig and Michel Chossudovsky. Don't worry about being politically-correct. The media shouts us down as "anti-american" if we don't support an illegal, destructive, US-led war. Canadian media calls us "unsupportive of our troops" if we don't agree with Canadian policy in the middle-east. Why should we, as Canadians, be ashamed to read this material (especially Canadians from Virginia ;) )? We shouldn't be. Read it.

Has some interesting information in it. But the writer has more problem with who is doing
it then what they are doing. One gets the idea that if the other party was doing it, things
would be just fine.

This is the kind of anti-American twaddle that, amazingly, can still get published. Canada, like most of NATO, is involved in Afghanistan, which benefits the whole world. As hard as it is for many Canadians, this is the right thing to do - unless you're pro-Taliban. Don't confuse the mess in Iraq with Afghanistan, they are apples and oranges. Canada benefits greatly from its relationship with the U.S.; everything from trade to security. Just as an example, if control of the Artic Ocean region every really gets contentious with Putin's Russia, who do you think Canada will turn to for assistance. For that matter, Canada doesn't have the armed forces or resources to ever defend itself. The U.S. shoulders a huge burden for us. This kind of book is just ignorant anti-Americanism. It is beneath our dignity as Canadians to fall for this rubbish.