Besides the Fact That Michael Den Tandt is an Idiot, There Can be Some Merit to His Comments

Now that the Kingston Whig Standard is part of Sun Media we get the usual right-wing round up, gracing the editorial pages.

And it's quite interesting what they have been doing with Harper's one-man decision to extend the Afghanistan war by three years. They are twisting the story, deflecting the criticism away from the King, and putting it on the leader of the opposition, since Ignatieff has actually been supporting a training, non-combative mission, something that is not viewed well by all members of his caucus. This is allowed and actually welcomed in a democracy. Go Libs.

I wish the Cons would stand up their leader once in a while.

This week, columnist Michael Den Tandt presented his twist on the story. He uses the usual Conservative talking points, "Ignatieff languishing in the polls", despite the fact that he's technically doing better than the man leading the country, and making this out to be Ignatieff's War, admonishing his caucus for not bowing to their boss.

Had this gone to Parliament perhaps Den Tandt would have a valid argument, but it didn't.

However, his column does reveal more of our democratic deficit.

With something as important as an annual 500 million dollar expenditure, not to mention training people to kill human beings, this should not have been a decision left to one person. It should not have been a partisan issue, and it should have been debated endlessly.

Because this should be OUR decision to make. Not Stephen Harper's . Not Michael Ignatieff's. Not Michael Den Tandt's. OURS.

If King Harper won't take it to Parliament, we need to take him to task. Parliament is all we have. It enables us to lobby our MPs and express our displeasure.

But who do we express our displeasure to now? Den Tandt is expressing his to the Liberal caucus for listening to their constituents. Get a grip. I'm sure there are people in Conservative ridings who are battle weary and want to see an end to this too.

Afghanistan has been just named one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It is being run by drug lords and war lords, while the West is guzzling the country's natural resources.

The wonderful Malalai Joya, a former member of the Afghan Parliament, says that we are being lied to. She is advocating for the poor in her country, whose situation will not change until all foreign soldiers are gone.

We need to help clean up the mess by offering funds for a legitimate attempt at rebuilding. Karzai is not a legitimate President and his government is not respected by the majority of the Afghan people. We don't need to train soldiers but workers. We need to lay down our guns and come home.

A little blast from my past, a song shared on Unseat Harper, 'One Tin Soldier', reminded me of something that is of vital importance. We need to become war protesters again.

And since we can't protest to Parliament, seeing as how they are out of the loop, we must take our protest to this government.

Two seemingly unrelated stories this week: Harper squashing the climate change bill and extending a war, may actually not be unrelated at all.

All that oil guzzling is helping to cause Global Warming. Listen to the lyrics of the song.

The people of the Middle East wanted to be able to control their own oil, selling it at a price, to benefit their citizens. A Caliphate. But as early as the 1950's Canadian oil execs suggested that they may have to engage "in a war for survival of its oilfed economy", (in case Russia tried to get to it first) while American General Tom Metz compared a Caliphate to Adolf Hitler. Go figure. You can read about it here with sources.

On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath the stone,
And the valley-people swore
They'd have it for their very own

And in a case of being careful what you wish for, our oil addiction could be our undoing, especially when we are allowing greed to trump common decency, and ignorance to trump necessary action.

And all that loss of life in war will only mean more loss of life, due to the effects of Climate Change.

So the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill,
Asking for the buried treasure,
Tons of gold for which they'd kill.

Came an answer from the kingdom,
"With our brothers we will share
All the secrets of our mountain,
All the riches buried there

And the secret they wanted to share was the most valuable of all:

Now they stood beside the treasure,
On the mountain, dark and red.
Turned the stone and looked beneath it...
"Peace on Earth" was all it said.

Enjoy the song but listen to the message.