One of the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission was that the security apparatus of the United States experienced a failure in imagination for not imaging the potential of a hostile group executing a 9/11-style attack on the United States before it became a reality.
Even after the 9/11 Commission published their findings the majority of Canadians, the mainstream media and the politicians of this country fail to fully comprehend the role imagination plays in the security of the nation. If you try to face the next threat or fight the next war in the same way you fought the last, you doom yourself to failure and oblivion. The attack methods of war are not stagnant and unchanging whether your nation participates or not in the development of tactics and strategy. There are no axioms in waging an attack that can be considered the mathematical equivalent of 2 + 2=4 except perhaps this; threats constantly evolve.
Canadians commonly assume that any entity that is openly belligerent and hostile to the United States recognizes Canada as completely different sovereign state and is therefore undeserving of same attention or treatment metered out to our American neighbors. In fact, groups hostile to the US perceive Canada, (whether Canadians like it or not) as a proxy of the United States. They judge us to have far more in common with our American neighbors and perceive our differences as insignificant. They observe our lack of defense (both capacity and mobility) as further evidence of our proxy statehood and judge us to be an Achilles heel of Uncle Sam. Our very pacifism offers them an opportunity to be exploited and not as a virtue to be cherished for its own sake.
Think I am wrong? Think Ahmed Ressam, the millienium bomber or the Kahdr family. Go travel to a third world country and watch how they roll their eyes when you try to correct them that you are not an American.
If I was a hostile entity/nation wanting to attack the United States and/or Proxy Nation of the US with a ballistic weapon. I would not necessarily plan to execute my attack from the confides of my physical space/nation. Hence, the long-range capacity of my ballistic missiles would not necessarily have to travel 10,000 plus miles to deliver an effective attack. I might develop my delivery system to be capable of launching a strike from a ship disguised as a common commercial vessel traveling the busy waterways of the Pacific, Atlantic or even the Arctic area, which offers several innate advantages in subterfuge. Three lessons to be drawn from the new millennium are that our enemies; do not lack imagination or resolve nor do they suffer from a shortage of volunteers to launch suicidal style attacks.
Mr. Dithers says no to Canadian participation in the development of a ballistic defense shield around the North American perimeter and yet his government seems to labour under the belief that even without Canadian participation in a defensive missile shield Canadians will have a measure of influence and the retain the right to dicker endlessly with our American neighbors on what is the most effective and appropriate course of action to take when the incomings approach our yard.
I’d like to say to my fellow compatriots that the time has come to raise your eyes from the ground, take a deep breathe and look around but with Mr. Dithers in charge -- the safest spot may very well be with your head down and tucked firmly between your knees.
5 comments:
Hi, I have a response to the article Not In My Neighborhood.
It sounds as though you're quite concerned about hostile countries viewing you as an American when you travel.
Certainly you as a good Canadian have done nothing to deserve mistreatment, rage, and possibly even torture and murder by these people. How dare they mistake you for the deserved target? Somebody who's life's decisions render them worthy of such punishment. Somebody born and raised in America.
As a Canadian, you must not affiliate yourself with such a people. Surely, if you were to see one of these Americans in Canada you would not give a friendly glance or a hello, just as you wouldn't associate with a murderer condemned to death for his malicious behavior.
You must remember when you're traveling overseas to be sure to clarify to the anti-Americans the gi-normous difference between individuals raised in Canada, and those raised in the United States.
With the exception of our love for our families, our solid work ethic, innovative culture, love for sports, independant spirit, optimistic attitude and a host of other qualities, we must see that these similarities are stark in contrast to our insurmountable differences such as pronunciation of "about", spelling of "colour", association with the French language and so on. Differences which constitute a much different treatment abroad.
In regards to the rest of the world's attitude towards America, when a teenager has problems in life who do they blame? And so it should be without a doubt that America is largely responsible for the worlds evils, and more specifically the citizens within it, individuals who sinlehandedly represent that countries' foreign policy.
If America is an awful bully, then our pride must be in vain. And so, pull down our shorts and take our pride but don't pander to the sentiment of the rest of the world.
Let's grow up and realize Canada that harsh treatment by citizens overseas is not acceptable for either of us and we must not defend or cater to rude or criminal behavior. Maybe America seems like a disregarding bully to you, but if your article mirrors popular Canadian thought, your country can seem like a real fair weather friend.
Justin in MN
Justin, I was writing for a very Canadian audience and my point was that as Canadians that we cannot afford to be cavalier with our own defense - we must be pro-active, threats constantly evolve and unless we evolve and develop our defenses we doom ourselves to kingdom come.
Not in my Nneighborhood was/is a common refrain used by the anti-missile defense shield participation crowd in Canada. Their mentality is that because we are not Americans no one hates us therefore our military should be none existent. No threats exist to Canadians. My point is, rightly or wrongly, for better or worse, we are preceived as a proxy of America and as such the threat is as great to us as to your selves. The anti-war crowd in Canada uses the meme that we need to emphasize our difference to America and therefore we shall be safe from the enemies of America rather than acknowledging our peril and actively develop our own defenses. They refuse to recognize that the enemies of America are our very own. What they hate and wish to destroy about America are the very things we as a country have in common with America.
Surely, you would prefer a neighbor that had the capacity to watch your back with something other than a twig and a few misguided intentions? Our military is about to implode from neglect. The Cdn government cannot even offer new combat boots for new recruits, reserve units have to have live fire exercises without ammo but the government can find the funds to supply heroine to junkies.
Thanks Kateland. I see your point more clearly now, and I should focus on your whole article and not just a specific red flag within it, however I see an importance in trying to give as many sides to an issue as I can, and I saw a good opportunity there to give a glimpse into a different viewpoint.
Yes, it can be a shame that two countries with a very similar way of life can have a very different foreign policy which goes unnoticed through the ignorance of much of the world. However I want to stress the importance of seeing things on a more individual level. For one, No individual who is born in a specific country and thus is an inherent citizen of it deserves to be singled out by people in disagreement with it. This is a way for these people to "Stand up to" the enemy without actually making progress towards something better, but simply satisfying their disdain for it. If they hate Americans because we live in America, then we should hate the students of a certain college who have disagreable proffessors.
I may be getting slightly derailed from the subject here, but I feel the need to explain that I'm the first to admit that America has an amalgum of problems and strengths, and the rest of the world will suffer from them but also benefit too.
It should be considered that America is a nation on the cutting edge of almost everything social or otherwise. Whereas the rest of the world wades into the water of challenges, America for whatever reason dives right in with little regard to the temperature of the water. It is to the benefit of these countries to guage their own submersion by the response of this soaking and shivering child, who on another day, might be running ahead of the others barefoot through a sticker patch, or picking the fat kid in a pickup baseball game.
I do understand some of Canada's concerns for being in close geographical proximity to a nation with such a different stance toward the rest of the world, but sometimes situations among groups of people are not simple in nature, and so a country with a unique situation such as America may have an all but simple relationship to other countries in the world. What I mean to say is that the U.S. may be handling an undeservedly large load of stress because it's on the cutting edge, and let me remind you that America is under this stress regardless of it's military policy but also because of it's position and it's circumstance as such a diverse and unusual country.
Like it or not America is setting the tone for world culture and if this is our fault, it's also the fault of any country that doesn't stop it from entering it's borders.
Learn from the trials of the U.S., but don't condemn her for enduring them. There have been far more oppressive world powers if you do the research. So take America for what she's worth, and stand by her as a friend because she is trying, and somehow enduring, but may be in need of understanding people who will stand by someday and may find that they owe it to her.
Justin in MN
I appreciate what you are saying, and I will say, its a very American point - no one should be targeted or hated on their basis of their associations - one that I very much agree with. I have a great deal of respect and sympathy for Americans. One of the things that awes me about America or Americans is that the American Revolution has not ended. It is an ongoing dynamic that has yet to end. The country on a whole is like a bright shining city on the hill for the rest of us. Certainly, there are times when the purpose is lost but the journey continues nonetheless.
Unfortunately, in my own country Anti-Americanism has become a national past-time and yet, rather than taking a leaf out of America's playbook and learn to help oneself if there comes a time when Canadians are threatened by an external force Canadians console themselves that America will save them. Ironic.
All of which leads me to believe that the White House should really send a bill to the Canadian government for defense. Its time for Canadians to grow-up and take on the responsibilities of nationhood.
I appreciate your response to the articles I've written. To be honest, I'm not incredibly clear as to exactly what America is doing with the rest of the world, and what the master plan is. I personally suspect money to be at the heart of alot of it, and a suspiciously loyal relationship with Israel. It's really difficult for me to defend this country sometimes, but it's even more difficult not to.
Really what I mean to say is that the U.S. contributes to the world in an unusual way. I actually don't wish that all nations will plunge into the water with America. Maybe your country should learn from America's mistakes, but learn soon because America is headed for alot of trouble.
I could go on and on with points supporting that. For one, money seems to be more important to people than families, and so as a result, those of us most capable of raising good families won't have as many children, while there is a strong incentive for largely ineligable parents to have families, most of which didn't plan for it anyways. I don't even need to get into the demographic and racial implications of this. It's no wonder to me that American pride is becoming endangered, and too many of the people who are replacing the European-Americans in this country think of America as something to change into their country of origin. I can't count on my fingers the amount of times I've seen a Mexican flag emblem adorning the windows of a vehicle, an action that would stir up hatred and violence if done by an American in Mexico.
There's a very very liberal cirriculum being taught at public schools from coast to coast, which is every bit as one sided as the opinions of Michael Moore. As a matter of fact, two of his films were required to be watched by my class for graduation, and every teacher must have a college education where this way of thinking also prevails nationwide.
These teachers who are in love with the idea of people living as one and eventually becoming one refer to this as "diversity" which ironically means the opposite, have a conflicting agenda. They almost always didn't grow up in a "diverse" environment like the blue collar working folks, and won't ever live in it their whole lives, but will preach about it and go so far as to call you racist for not feeling the way that they do about it.
I realize that there is a love that I feel for all people that transcends race, but America and more importantly the rest of the world should not be so quick to discredit their own history and welcome their countries' cultural replacement.
These issues are some of the big ones, because of the implicit permenance of the long term effect of cultural integration among other problems. I do think that Canada is doing a great job but should try harder to learn from America.
Thanks for listening to my slightly off the subject rant.
Justin
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