Since Day One, the US has sought both moral validation and military support from Canada and the international community for its invasion and occupation of Iraq - sometimes bullying, sometimes threatening, sometimes pleading. As Coalition support cools, American and Iraqi deaths continue to rise, and popular support for President Bush crumbles, the real and symbolic value of Canadian collaboration rises faster than the loonie.
This presents Stephen Harper with a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, he’d love to be a War Prime Minister, hobnobbing with the Big Boys, summoned to Washington, being photographed in flak jackets, and of course, demonstrating Canada’s eternal fealty loyalty to the US. For much of Mr. Harper’s constituency, Canada is essentially the fifty first state anyway: but unfortunately for the PM, most Canadians are reluctant to see large numbers of our troops dying to repair the catastrophe wrought by Mr. Bush.
A few days ago the Bunker invited you to contribute your thoughts to a thread that speculated we would be carefully prepared for a serious escalation of Canadian military involvement in Iraq. Democratic governments sell unpalatable policy decisions to their citizenry through a number of tried and true communications strategies, most of which are based on the well known Mythical Boiling Frog Principle: a frog dropped into boiling water will hop right back out, but a frog immersed in tepid water (click) will stay put until it dies (click) if you raise the temperature dial slowly enough, click by (click). I confess that thread was an attempt to draw the frog’s attention to Mr. Harper’s hand on the dial, slowly inching up the temperature.
In that spirit, here’s another line you can expect to hear over the next weeks, as tentative trial balloons justifying a large Canadian deployment to Iraq slowly are cautiously floated.
General MGen Natynczyk was recognized for his outstanding leadership and professionalism while deployed as Deputy Commanding General of the Multi-National Corps during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. From January 2004 to January 2005, MGen Natynczyk led the Corps’ 10 separate brigades, consisting of more than 35,000 soldiers stationed throughout the Iraq Theatre of Operations. He also oversaw planning and execution of all Corps level combat support and combat service support operations.
In other words: Canadian Bush supporters will point to the involvement of a handful of Canadian personnel in Iraq as a rationale for a much larger scale deployment. It will probably NOT be emphasized that most of the Canadian presence is the result of pre-existing assignments: it will be indirectly suggested that those sneaky Liberals were covertly supporting Bush’s war ANYWAY. Mr. Harper’s eagerness to throw Canadian lives into the blender is just the next step. And hey, how ‘BOUT that fabulous softwood lumber triumph, eh?
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I don’t think anyone, particularly Bush supporters, would be keen on the idea of knowing that our nation agrees with and supports, albeit reluctantly and with the heavy, heavy heart of our wise people who know well the experience of sensible and capable nation-building, an intervention at this late, dire stage of the operation to repair and make whole that which has proved beyond the scope of all the careful planning, execution, not to mention the noblest of intentions, of the United States of America. I believe this action would display a smugness and a moral superiority that would be deeply, deeply wounding to the self-esteem of our southern neighbour, and would smack of egregious anti-Americanism, which we all know is an ignoble reflex among our people.