Chickening Out in the War on Terror

There was an issue that was noticeably absent from
the political debate in Canada during this summer's
federal election. Despite much bitter arguing over
who supported the Iraq war and who didn’t, none
of the major parties had anything significant to say
about the ongoing War on Terror and Canada’s role

in it. It makes sense, really. Ever since about

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halfway through 2002, it seems an increasingly large
number of Canadians are eager to just wash their
hands of the entire affair and move on. The War on
Terror is no longer seen as being “relevant” to
Canada and, as a result, Canada is moving farther
and farther away from its post 9-11 resolve.

On the third anniversary of September 11, a
poll by the “Center for Research and Information
on Canada” recorded that a solid majority of
Canadians (56 percent) believe that their country is
not a potential target for terrorists. A CTV poll
showed that an even larger majority (61 percent) of
Canadians believe we have “done enough” in the
War on Terror, and a shocking 14 percent even
believed we had done “too much.” Of course, as I
argued in a past column, one should naturally be
wary of poll numbers that seek to describe the atti-
tudes of an entire country. Matters of war and
peace usually transcend regional differences, and
the fact that a healthy majority of Canadians appar-
ently believe that Canada should cut itself off from
the War on Terror is a disturbing reflection of our
country’s decline into naiveté and complacency in
the realm of global affairs.

These numbers are in stark contrast to the over
83 percent of Canadians who were said to support
Canadian military action in the wake of 9-11. What
went wrong?

The biggest problem continues to be that the
Canadian liberal establishment, which currently
holds many of the hearts and minds in our present
government, simply refuses to address, or even pet-
ceive, the true nature of the terrorist threat
currently facing Western and pro-Western societies.
The immediate pains of 9-11 now long forgotten,
the foreign policy makers in Ottawa have apparent-
ly reverted back into their tried-and-true mindset in
which there is no such thing as a “conflict” in the
world, simply a clash of two morally equivalent
feuding parties.

Today, the “Official Canadian View” on the ter-

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WaT)

J.J. McCullough, OP Columnist

 

ror war seems to be that however despicable the
actions of terrorists may be, we must nevertheless
seek to diagnose and understand the “legitimate
concerns” that motivated them to commit such ter-
rible acts. Only then can we hope to cure and
rehabilitate the poor misguided souls. Not that this
is our job, of course. Increasingly, Canadians seem

(If you're in the Middle
East and a terrorist tries to
blow you up, just calmly
explain that you're a

Canadian and he'll no doubt
politely apologize for the

 

 

 

confusion. es
to prescribe to the view that the only reason there
are terrorists in the first place is because of the past
or present actions of the American government,
which has stirred up the Middle Eastern hornet’s
nest with its clumsy foreign policies. Thus, logical-
ly, terrorists only have a beef with the American
government and will therefore only try to kill
Americans. If you’re in the Middle East and a ter-
rorist tries to blow you up, just calmly explain that
youre a Canadian and he’ll no doubt politely apol-
ogize for the confusion.

To be sure, Canadian troops continue to remain
in Afghanistan, and are serving bravely, but can
they honestly say public support remains behind
them? Their mission remains what it always was—
to eradicate Al Quedia, Taliban, and other terrorist
cells from the country. But if Canadians feel that
such terrorists pose no threat to their own lives or
their own nation, what’s the point? I’m reminded of
a recent discussion I had in one of my political sci-
ence classes on the subject. After hearing the
professor give a description of the extent to which
the Canadian military remains stationed in

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Afghanistan, a student piped up and said, “Why are
our troops fighting to protect Americans?”
Canadians need to stop assuming that radical
Islamic fundamentalists view the world the same
way we do, Fundamentalist killers like Osama Bin
Laden and his ilk have little interest in understand-
ing the subtle nuances of Canada’s “soft-power”

 

 

 

 

diplomacy, or its commitment to peacekeeping, or
its refusal to participate in the Iraq war. Terrorists
will not be diverted from attacking Canadian soil
just because we have more liberal immigration poli-
cies, or have legalized Al-Jazeera, or have given
Michael Moore an honorary citizenship.

Canada’s liberals need to realize that the terror-
ist enemy is not simply a rag-tag bunch of poor,
post-modernist rebels who have “legitimate con-
cerns” over global wealth distribution or the lack of
parliamentary democracy in Jordan. The Far Left
needs to stop trying to find elements of their own
agenda within radical Islam, and realize instead that
such a movement is as much against their interests
as it is against the interests of conservatives, capi-
talists, Westerners, and Americans.

In a recent column in the New York Times, one of
my favourite columnists, David Brooks, called a
spade a spade in describing the true nature of rad-
ical Islamic terrorism. I believe it remains one of
the most accurate and succinct descriptions to date:

“This is the cult of people who are proud to
declare, “You love life, but we love death.’ The
death cult is not really about the cause it pur-
ports to serve. It’s about the sheer pleasure of
killing and dying, It’s about massacring people
while in a state of spiritual loftiness. It’s about
experiencing the total freedom of barbarism—
freedom even from human nature, which says,
love children, and love life. It’s about the joy of
sadism and suicide.”

This is the enemy that threatens us today, just as
it has already attacked the peoples of Russia, Spain,
Australia, Italy, and many others who once felt they
were immune from this “American” problem. This
vein of terrorism presents a universal danger, and
through our words and actions Canada should
make clear its steadfast opposition to such threats.
When it comes to confronting evil, there should be
no shame in admitting where we stand.

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