Let's not forget what James Baker, Secretary of State for President Bush 41, said quite nicely the other day "I have worked with current US policymakers I know their hearts. And they have not abandoned one principle that has been part of national foreign policy for more than six decades. It is that the United States fights wars and provides security guarantees at great cost in treasure and blood to protect others and win their freedom; not to gain territory or plunder resources. Cemeteries across Europe testify to this." And there are many Canadians in those cemeteries, as well. Like Canada, we very much wanted the UN to be a relevant and effective body. But once those efforts failed, we no longer saw things from a multilateral perspective For us, now, it is much more basic than that.
It is about family.There is no security threat to Canada that the US would not be ready, willing and able to help with There would be no debate There would be no hesitation We would be there for Canada, part of our family. That is why so many in the United States are disappointed and upset that Canada is not fully supporting us now.We are at war to liberate Iraq, to protect the people of the US and other countries from the devastating impact of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction being used by terrorists or the Iraqi government to kill thousands of innocent civilians. This is a direct security threat to the people of the United States.That is why we feel so strongly about this and why we are so disappointed that Canada is not fully supporting us.. With the deep-water port of Umm Qasr secured at last and British troops moving into the outskirts of Basra, the decisive point of the war yesterday was still the approach to Baghdad, which for Allied strategic planners is the Iraqi "centre of gravity". The national leaders' focus has probably shifted to the "end-state", although that should have been decided at the beginning. To the type of government to be installed after President Saddam falls, and to the role of the United Nations.On the battlefield, considerable gains have been made in the first six days, although the predominance of "friendly fire" deaths, especially those suffered by the British, has been a shock. The US-British-Australian force (it can hardly be called a coalition, for it is not) has a deep-water port, and largely surrounds Iraq's second city.The "rising" in Basra reported on Tuesday night does not seem to have taken hold as fast as initially hoped.
The British fought artillery duels with 1,000 pro-Saddam militia. An assault into Basra itself may still be some way off.Continued resistance behind the advancing ground forces was probably inevitable, although it has been much stiffer than expected. An even bigger shock has been that many Iraqis did not welcome the invaders as liberators, as forecast.Many in the areas seized by the British and Americans said they still feared the secret police. Only time and extensive foot patrolling and "hearts and minds" operations will reassure them.Unsurprisingly, the British, with their long experience of peace operations, in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, have proved more effective in Umm Qasr and Basra than the Americans.The US troops are incomparable in the open field but their tendency to stand back and blast at the landscape does not work when fighting in built-up areas. At least, it does not unless they are prepared to inflict huge numbers of casualties indiscriminately.Yesterday dawned with reports of ferocious fighting around Najaf, on the main approach to Baghdad from the south, as the US V Corps repelled fanatical assaults. Hundreds of Iraqis were reported to have been killed, with no US losses.This extraordinary difference in casualties can be attributed to the superiority of US weapons, armour and training, and to the night-vision and other surveillance equipment the Americans use To them, the night is day: to the Iraqis, it is still dark. Some US officers reported Iraqi infantry taking on US armoured troops, with predictably bloody results.If the Iraqis were making a desperate attempt to dislodge the Americans, that would make sense.
