Montreal Serai

We’re not idiots. But as Canadians, we’re told things, contradictory things, things that don’t add up… about Afghanistan, our mission, security, democracy… February 19th, here in Montreal, Robert Fisk, respected Middle East correspondent of 33 years, argued fervently for NATO and Canada, to get the hell out of “the total, absolute catastrophe” of the Middle East.  Montreal Serai co-sponsored the talk and this issue of Serai is dedicated to Canada’s militarization.  Now the 6th biggest spender in NATO, we’re meaner, more fantastic, more unreal than ever before.

In the Defence Department’s Mission statement here, we’re told that Canadian Forces are called upon to fulfill 3  roles:

• 1) Protect Canadians at home.
• 2) Defend North America in cooperation with the US.
• 3) Defend Canadian interests abroad.

We’re told that this is a democracy and yet the how’s, when’s and where’s of numbers 1, 2 and 3 are decided without any pretense to democratic consultation. Which seems to have led to a situation in which, as Fisk so aptly put it, “We are not safe anywhere!” For to honor numbers 2 and 3 surely means to seriously compromise number 1, when, for instance, Canada is deeply partnering with Israel on matters to do with our mutual security in such areas as correctional services, prisons, law enforcement and borders and mutual protection from “common threats” including “border issues” See here.

How do we, the electorate, deal with this allegiance, following the horrors that Israel has just inflicted on the Gaza, an open air prison of sorts / a testing ground for weaponry the likes of which not previously seen, the stuff of nightmares.  We do not deal with it very well, largely because we do not have to.

The terrible reality of Gaza here has not been televised.  Our constitutions, deemed too delicate, were spared the horrors, by what Fisk observed as TV’s “coalition with government” and, quoting Reuters, “Out of respect for the dead.”  ”The same bodies,” he added, “they wouldn’t show respect for when they were alive.”

How prepared are we to question policy and practice when it’s also a matter of business as usual? Many Canadians have interests in Israel vested right through their retirement: See here how the Canadian Pension Plan is investing in weapons sold to Israel. Heavens! you may think, at what price those golden years?!

Then again, the CPP is no less patriotic than the DND who promise that “Defence will continue to make a vital contribution to the economy” while promoting “the deeply held Canadian values of democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law.” Speaking of the latter…on the matter of our mission, to Afghanistan, didn’t Harper recently declare on CNN, ”  …quite frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency. Because I think, you know, a part of the calculation there is the fact that, ultimately, the source of authority in Afghanistan has to be perceived as being indigenous. If it’s perceived as being foreign — and I still think we’re welcome there — but if it’s perceived as being foreign, it will always have a significant degree of opposition.” The blood of Afghan men, women and children; how many lives? Only for our leader to blandly arrive at the same understanding as Lawrence of Arabia, in 1929, “Granted mobility, security, time and doctrine, victory will rest with the insurgents.” Such is Afghanistan. “Why,” Fisk asks, “didn’t we read this in 2003?”

In a Real News panel on why we are in Afghanistan here,  Sunil Ram, military and security analyst, reports how the Taliban go back and blow up schools and other institutions built by the occupying force, the invaders, the Canadian crusaders. Tariq Amin-Khan, professor of politics at Ryerson points out that, “Reconstruction runs counter to the logic of militarization.”

This is Canada’s history in Afghanistan.  Will we learn from it?  Or are all lessons of history lost when foreign policy and defence are trade driven, outside democratic and ethical influence?  Malalai Joya, outspoken female legislator, banned from the Afghan Parliament, argued that “No nation can donate liberation to another nation.” Amin-Khan understands, “You have to allow the political process to unfold.” And that process must be native to that land.

Fisk spoke of how Palestinians are living the history of the Balfour Declaration while every day we in the West are living in this fantasy land of business as usual.  But, I for one want to escape to that reality that understands a we, over here, can no longer be safe from a them over there, the Arabs and Muslims, by now, “white hot incendiary with frustration that they do not get the one thing that all Arabs and all Muslims ask for…justice.”(Fisk) Because, thanks to the defence trade’s twisted notion of democratic praxis, we produce a plethora of weapons to go round so that there is no longer here and there; there is only here.

“Why”, Fisk asked of government leaders, “do we believe these people?” “Why do we put our trust in Obama,” notably silent during Gaza.  Because he believes? We can believe what our government and military say they believe because we are prevented from seeing what they do.

Is it sane to suggest that until we bring the military into democracy, discussion and decision making, along with the economy, histories, the sciences, the environment, media and so on, that security will increasingly mean insecurity.

In this issue of Serai, there are no borders.

 

 

To see Robert Fisk in Ottawa, March 2009 click here.

 

 

 
Hey kids! Want a career with a dubious future?

A job where you get paid to play real life deadly games?

Then join the Canadian Armed Forces!

Kill innocent people!  People you’ll never know!  People just like you!

Kill them up close or far away – your choice!

Kill babies, moms with children, old geezers, wedding guests,

pet dogs, donkeys, nurses, doctors, teachers and more!

They don’t want you there anyway, so kill ‘em all!

Unlike civilians, you’ll be licensed to kill! How cool is that?

In war, everyone is fair game!

And blame-free, easily excused ‘accidents’ happen all the time.

You can bomb hospitals, nurseries, wedding tents, schools, universities,

family farms, convoys of refugees – just like on TV

- and no one will chew you out! You’ll be obeying orders ‘doing your job.’

It’s patriotic! Satisfying! You’ll score huge points. And get paid, too!

You can do all this killing with modern ‘smart’ bombs, ‘intelligent guns’

and ‘enemy-sensitive’ grenades. You don’t have to think!

These amazing weapons only kill the bad people,

their bad kids and bad pet rabbits.

When you fly our ultra-cool jet fighters,

you get free cases of Coke before every flight.

We even pipe your favorite heavy metal tunes into the cockpit

to help drown out a nagging conscience.

And we’ll fill you full of beer and drugs afterwards to help you unwind.

Flying killer bombing missions was never easier!

For every evil, freedom and democracy hating, anti-Canadian, anti-American,

anti-God, anti-Tim Horton’s, anti-Hockey Night in Canada

enemy person, family or pet you kill,

you’ll get bonus air miles points for gift purchases.

Compete with like-minded patriotic killers from the USA for rad prizes.

Make your folks proud! And if you capture any of the ‘enemy’ alive,

learn how to hand them over to the Americans to torture,

or learn how to torture them yourself! It’s easy! Everyone’s doing it!

We’ll even teach you how to spot anti-patriotic, evil, insurgent,

dissident, anarchist, environmentalist, homosexual, feminist, foreign trouble-making,

anti-war Canadians from miles away so you can spy on them

and round them up for us in your spare time.

And if anyone questions why you kill for a living,

tell them you also hand out blankets, shoes, candy and k-rations

to poor, starving, homeless people – after you bombed their homes

or wiped out their families. That will shut them up.

Then return to the field of battle as part of the ‘reconstruction team’

to show them what a good sport you are,

re-building their destroyed country in our own image!

Come home to get congratulated by the number-one-killer himself,

the man who condones, encourages and promotes our nation’s contribution

to worldwide war, mayhem and devastation – but who never dirties his hands

- the oh-so-Christian, God-fearing, fearless Mr. Prime Minister!

He’ll decorate you for re-decorating other people’s faces, bodies, families

and cities, or for rearranging your own. Because it sometimes happens.

Good, well-meaning, job-desperate folk like you

can get maimed, wounded, paralyzed, blinded, amputated,

hospitalized for life, or even killed.

But heck, whether you return home in a wheelchair, stretcher or body bag,

we guarantee you’ll be feted like a real hero! With the Canadian Armed Forces!

 

All militarization has environmental consequences.  All of which have little to do with democracy.

The other day, Montreal economist, writer, publisher and social ecologist, Dimitri Roussopoulos, took M/S on an amble through the four categories of militarization and environment, and its most undemocratic nature.

The four categories can go like this:

1. The production of military hardware, chemicals, biology, conventional and nuclear weaponry.
2. Military research involves testing, nearly all of which is done secretly.  All the stages of such testing have environmental consequences.  Take the Sheffield Plant in Alberta. Check out the landscape; not healthy.
3. Space exploration, most of which has a military agenda to secure the upper hand and a commanding view of planet earth, from a space station or a planet.  An estimated 10-50,000 space vehicles circulate the planet and eventually become space debris with virtually un-discussed impacts on the earth’s atmosphere.
4. Warfare: E. P. Thompson observed that the new generation of weaponry had to be shown to be operational, a factor which triggered the 80′s arms race between the US and Russia. The US installed Cruise and Pershing missiles aimed at Russia and the Russians installed SS20′s and a whole new era of cold war and geopolitical power play ensued.  However, the environmental impacts of wars prove the true testing ground, the 1^st and 2^nd Iraq wars are the cases in point, the bombardment of the oil fields inflicting incalculable environmental damage.  Treaties have failed to draw environmental connections with the four categories above so that the various powers involved can avoid accusations of ecocide.

M/S How could the environment, from the point of view of military research, production, and warfare be brought into a democracy?

Dimitri Roussopoulos replies:

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