Posted on 03/07/2003 11:15:14 AM PST by quidnunc
Foot-in-mouth disease is a common political affliction that, while often embarrassing both to the individual and the political party in question, doesn't necessarily indicate government policy.
Except when it keeps happening.
The latest gaffe by Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish — "Damn Americans, I hate those bastards" — goes beyond a slip of the tongue. Despite her attempts to soften her remarks, they're probably an accurate reflection, not of the attitude of Liberal MPs (backbench "nobodies," as Pierre Trudeau called them when he was PM), but of Jean Chretien, arguably the most petty and vindictive PM in our history.
Parrish was not just chastising American policies, nor only President George Bush, nor the U.S. military.
Not even the looming war against Saddam Hussein.
She was was referring to all American "bastards."
(She later suggested on Open Mike With Mike Bullard that next time, if there is one, she will aim her criticism specifically at Bush and a few of his top officials.)
The effect in Washington is not so much outrage or anger as resignation and disappointment.
It's what's expected from Canada these days.
It was bad enough when Chretien's communications director Francoise Ducros called President Bush a "moron" and wasn't immediately fired or reprimanded.
In fact, Chretien tried to excuse her, saying she often called him a "moron" and that Bush couldn't be a moron because he was a "friend."
Some friend! Ducros eventually resigned, which ain't the same as being fired.
Another Liberal MP, Bonnie Brown, still presumably thinks attacking Saddam is the equivalent of Hitler invading Poland or Japan attacking Pearl Harbor.
The PM himself, in the wake of 9/11, is on record as downplaying the terrorist threat and suggesting the U.S. is "arrogant, self-satisfied, greedy and with no limits," and therefore partly responsible for the terrorism that now threatens the civilized world.
In other words, all these anti-American sentiments emerging from the Liberal party are not individual indiscretions, but a depiction of what the government feels.
-snip-
While the view of the NDP's Bill Blaikie is that Bush is "planning every minute of his life to kill as many Iraqi children as he can," and Parrish's damn Yankees remarks "aren't great statements," Etzinger thinks the Americans are more understanding than we sometimes give them credit for being. This may well be, but patience, if not tolerance, is wearing thin.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at canoe.ca ...
Of all the bastards in the world available to hate these days, surely Americans are the least intelligent choice.
I would go so far as to say that if — like Liberal Member of Parliament Carolyn Parrish — you have at the top of your hate list the approximately 280 million people who live in the United States, you have a serious problem. You should take stock, actually; examine your prejudices, especially those under whose influence you were when you decided the U.S. had earned your undying enmity. Your odium odometer, if you will, is seriously out of whack. Think, in this world gone mad, how many other people have really earned your loathing.
Parrish preceded her recent post-scrum remarks to reporters by concluding the U.S. was not interested in peace. "Damn Americans," she summed up eloquently. "I hate those bastards."
Of course President George Bush and his administration are not interested in peace. Since the massacre of 3,000-plus innocent Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, they have been interested in war. They had better be. Argue as you might about which responsibilities might appropriately belong to a federal government, the protection of the nation and its civilian population is not debatable. That's its job. That's its first and most important job.
A particularly vicious and sizable portion of the world is very interested in war against the U.S. Radical Islamic terrorists have vowed to kill as many innocent Americans as they can in as many sadistic ways as they can. They do not rule out chemical, bacterial or even nuclear attack. They have vowed to make war until the United States is destroyed. Now THERE is an appropriate target for hatred.
Parrish and Francie Ducros — she of the vacuous "Bush is a moron" remark — seem not to understand that the world has changed as far as Americans are concerned. Since 9/11, U.S. citizens have been in real and deadly danger. Practically every able-bodied soldier in the country has been mobilized. They're on high alert — strip searches, suspecting everyone, wondering where the next terrorist attack will come. You can't find a roll of duct tape anywhere. Their country will be at war until the world, according to their lights, is righted.
Before the Twin Towers atrocity, Bush had a much different notion of the direction his presidency would take — tinkering with the economy and long breaks at the ranch in Texas. To think he began planning war the minute the votes were counted is to embrace the Parrish/Ducros paranoia. Bush pursues war now because his country was attacked. I hesitate to put such a juvenile spin on it, but the fact is they started it.
The rampant anti-Americanism in Canada and especially among our Liberal politicians has nothing to do with U.S. post-9/11 activities. Their prejudices were in full bloom long before Bush declared war on terrorism. It is a sickness deep in our Canadian psyche, nourished by much of the press, enthusiastically and gleefully propagated in academia and exploited shamelessly by a scary number of politicians.
The notion that Americans are the "bastards" in this piece is one born of prejudice, jealously and a most unattractive Canadian arrogance. Since 9/11 the Americans have done nothing to deserve the vitriol that has been heaped on them by so much of the rest of the world, including Canada.
-snip-
(Hartley Steward in the Toronto Sun, March 7, 2003)
To Read This Article Click Here
"Damn Americans, I hate those bastards"The Left--"Liberals"--are consumed with hate. This is obvious in they way they criticize President Bush and his endeavors to make the world safe and free. Many of them are blinded by their all-consuming, irrational hatred of him to the extent that they can see nothing else."Bush is 'planning every minute of his life to kill as many Iraqi children as he can'"
"Hate is always tragic."When "Liberals" and leftists speak of "hate", they should look into their own hearts. There they will find much work that needs to be done.--Martin Luther King
Nope, I'm attempting to do my mite to convince Canadians that anti-Americanism is going to be increasingly detrimental to their national interests.
Consider these articles I post to be a series of dope-slaps.
The notion that Americans are the "bastards" in this piece is one born of prejudice, jealously and a most unattractive Canadian arrogance. Since 9/11 the Americans have done nothing to deserve the vitriol that has been heaped on them by so much of the rest of the world, including Canada.
This guy is 6 months behind the curve...
WELCOME to the defining moment of the Twenty First Century!!
I just laid out , for the benefit of members of a private listserve, just how in one fell swoop, the United States deposes the UN, Nato, and the One World Government types, relegates the Democrat Party to footnote status, and realigns international Power and Economic relations...and it will ALL be over by Turkey [the Bird, not the has-been rump of the Ottoman Empire] Day in 2004.
All cooked up by George "Dumb as Rocks" Dubya, Condoleezza Rice, Rummy et al.
Fasten your seat belts, it is GOING DOWN NOW!!!
The Liberals have come 'out of the closet' big time. Every inflammatory insult hurled at the US, is increasingly raising the 'ante'. We've got Chretien behaving like a 3RD World 'leader', cashing 'in' with anti-American rhetoric as the citizenry ignores his failings. Its a cheap act that is enabled by our insane immigration policy, and a growing legion of bought voter's.
The soon to crumble UN will put Chretien on the 'wrong-side'.....let's see how that looks on him.
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