By Beryl Wajsman
Monday, July 31, 2006
One of the hats I wear is that of a talk show host. I have spent much time the past several weeks on the Mid-East crisis. I have been very clear in my views. This is not just democratic Israel's struggle. This is the free world's struggle. Israel is merely the frontline nation in this World War against a theocratic tyranny that seeks to impose its hegemony over the liberal west.
I have been flooded with supportive e-mails and calls from across the country. Most of you "get it". You understand that the heinous killings and provocations of the Jihadists and their fellow travellers are those of fascists not freedom fighters. That they hate us for what we do right, live free, not for anything we do wrong. But some of you good Canadians are upset. Very upset. You consider my positions somewhat "un-Canadian". Who knows, maybe one day you politically-correct Lilliputians out there may get your wish and get me thrown off air.
I offend your delicate sensibilities. You don't like to believe that in this world of instant communication and instant destruction there really is evil. It's not all gray all the time. You would like me to have a more "proportional" position. You would like me to share your sunshine patriot moral relativism. Your fawning chattering-class notions of every culture's right to be wrong. Your knee-jerk anti-americanism. and most of all, your fashionably smug Canadian political equivalency that masks nothing less than a cowardice to confront murder and mayhem.
Well, I certainly wouldn't want to be responsible for neurotic breakdowns among the fey and feckless of you out there. So, as your humble servant, I will offer the following apology inspired by retired Marine Corps Gen. Charles Pitman from whom I have liberally borrowed in some places. and please don't get your knickers in a knot that I had the audacity to draw inspiration from an american.
I am sorry that it has not been recognized to Canada's credit that almost every recent Canadian military engagement where we sent the best of our youth into harm's way was in the defense of Muslims in peril. In Bosnia. In Kosovo. In the Persian Gulf. In Kuwait. In afghanistan. In Iraq (yes we were there). and the list goes on.
I am sorry that so few Canadians demanded an apology from Islamist extremists and their state supporters after 9/11 and after all the other atrocities from London to Madrid. Bali to Beslan. Jerusalem to amsterdam.
I am sorry that most arabs and Muslims have to live in squalor under savage dictatorships.
I am sorry that their leaders squander their wealth.
I am sorry that their governments breed hate for the west in their religious schools, mosques, and government-controlled media and that Canada, until recently, sent foreign aid to the Palestinian authority that allowed it to produce textbooks propagating hate against Israel and the west.
I am sorry that so few Canadians know that Israel was the only state to recognize the arab State of Palestine in 1948 while Palestine's neighbouring arab cousin-states attacked Israel and occupied Palestine keeping its territory hostage, after an aggressive war, for twenty years never allowing it independence.
I am sorry Canadians do not call for arab apologies
I am sorry that so many of you deny to Israel, which holds territories acquired after a defensive war as France, Russia and america did in its Pacific possessions until peace was achieved, the same rights as those nations had under international law.
I am sorry so many do not recognize that even under Israeli occupation Palestinians have the lowest infant mortality, highest medical services and the largest percentage of university students of any frontline arab jurisdictions.
I am sorry that the U.S. and Israel are the biggest financial supporters of poverty stricken arabs while the insanely wealthy arab neighbouring states contribute token amounts and blame those self-same supporters for all the troubles in the Mid-East.
I am sorry that Jordan kicked out the PLO into south Lebanon; that Egypt has imprisoned over 40,000 members of the violent Muslim Brotherhood; and that even Saudi arabia has denounced Hezbollah and yet much of our media demands that Israel must suffer assaults on its people without response.
I am sorry that successive governments of Lebanon have failed those brave Lebanese who made the Cedar revolution to be free but have been betrayed at every turn by weak leaders who allow everything from the arming of homicidal gangs from the PLO in the 80's to Hezbollah today, and succumb on bended knee to the dictates of Syria and Iran.
I am sorry that UN Secretary-General Kofi annan failed to protect the poor of Iraq from the "oil for food" money scam in which he protected his own son's involvement, and now seeks moral absolution because a UN outpost was accidentally attacked instead of being pulled out earlier as all UN observers had been in 1967, 1973 and 1982.
I am sorry that annan failed the people of Lebanon in refusing to send in 10,000 combat ready troops into South Lebanon to control Hezbollah as was required by Resolution 1559, just as he failed the people of Rwanda in refusing to give UN peacekeeping commander Canadian Gen. Roméo Dallaire the necessary assets and authority to stop the genocide in Rwanda as he was mandated to do by Resolution 1441 when annan was the UN official responsible for peacekeeping operations.
I am sorry that our own left wing, our media, and so many of our own brainwashed masses do not understand any of this and fail to recognize that the courage of Prime Minister Harper's principled resolve is restoring Canadian pride, purpose and consequence on the world stage alongside our traditional allies in the family of free nations.
I am sorry that Prime Minister Harper, initially facing derision for questioning the UN's failures, was proven correct when he asked why the observers weren't pulled out at the start of the conflict.
I am sorry that here in Canada Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, in the person and party of Bill Graham and the Liberals, are of such low limitation and narrow circumstance that they can only oppose for the sake of their political opportunism and not propose for the sake of the progress of freedom. and when they are proven wrong refuse to apologize.
I am sorry that some arab governments encourage homicide bombers by paying their families $20,000 upon their deaths.
I am sorry that those same bombers are brainwashed thinking they will receive 72 virgins in "paradise."
I am sorry that Hezbollah and their allied gangs of thugs think pregnant women, babies, children, the elderly and other noncombatant civilians are legitimate targets to kill, and legitimate human shields to use.
I am sorry that so many in our country think it is legitimate, put aside "proportionate", of Hezbollah to invade Israel; kill eight soldiers; kidnap two others ostensibly in order to bargain for the release of Hezbollah and Hamas thugs imprisoned in Israel for murder and terror. By that standard any criminals here at home should be allowed to kill and kidnap cops as hostages in return for the release of their fellow criminal friends in Canadian prisons.
I am sorry that Israel is vilified because it has suffered less casualties in this current conflict because it protects its most vulnerable instead of exploiting them.
I am sorry that in the 21st Century our troops must still defend arab women against gang rape; beheadings and stonings that they are subjected to from retrograde and revanchiste religious laws that should have died with the Dark ages.
I am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more arabs than they have any other people. and that continues in Lebanon for those who think Hezbollah exercises its stranglehold over the south only through dispersing some $100,000,000 of Iranian money. Most of the money goes for arms and training. Most of its control comes from its home-bred "Murder Incorporated". al Capone had nothing on these guys.
I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state.
I am sorry that Hamas betrays the Palestinian people with a refusal to renounce violence thereby stopping the progression of Palestine from "de facto" to "de jure" statehood.
I am sorry that Hezbollah, Hamas. al-Qaida and all the other terrorists always find a convenient "Holy Site" to attack from and then demand an apology for those sites being destroyed.
I am sorry, as we approach the 5th anniversary of 9-11, that none of them apologized for the collapse of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church - one of america's Holy Sites — after ramming jets into the World Trade Center
I am sorry they didn't apologize for flight 93 and 175, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings, the murders and beheadings of Nick Berg, Daniel Pearl, and all the others.
I am sorry that the brave souls on flight 93 who so valiantly fought their killers failed to rip those bastards hearts out.
The free world will get past this absurdity. It will punish those responsible because that is what we do. We've survived the appeasers before. as Churchill said of Chamberlain, "He wanted neither war nor Hitler. He got both."
The free world hangs out its dirty laundry for the entire world to see. That's what the Jihadists can't stand. The lamp of liberty focused on its wrongs. We hang it out there; fix the problems and move on. That's one of the reasons we are hated so much. We don't hide this stuff like all those rogue arab states and terror gangs constantly demanding western apologies.
Canadians' compassion should always be tempered with the vivid memories of free nations' troops being killed, mutilated, burnt thrown out of windows and stomped on after being taken prisoners and all this amongst joyous crowds of celebrating Islamists handing out candies and cake in what the media love to call the "arab street".
If you want more of an apology from this Canadian, who remembers that tens of thousands of us made the supreme sacrifice for freedom and now lay row on row in fields where poppies grow, you're going to have a long wait! So suck it up. as Gen. Pitman said. you have a better chance of finding those seventy-two virgins.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement