“Burman: Canada’s windows on the world are quietly closing” The Toronto Star

People wait at the door of the Iranian embassy in Ottawa to collect passports, Friday September 7, 2012. Canada has closed its embassy in Iran and is expelling all remaining Iranian diplomats in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

Ideology over reality as Harper radically restructures Canada’s role in the world, away from peace-keeper, to a George W. Bush style unilateralism on the military, pariah on climate change, and a sacrificing of our independence through joint embassies with the United Kingdom. Canada has a lot to offer the world – Mulroney took a decisive stand against apartheid going against Reagan and Thatcher, Trudeau and Pearson were powerful presences on the world stage.

Harper doesn’t care about this legacy, he doesn’t see much role for Canada as a productive force on the world stage.

“Canada’s windows on the world are gradually being closed. This is happening quietly and with little notice or debate — but with an obvious sense of ideology. Having lived and worked outside of Canada for four of the past five years — in the Middle East and Washington — I could see it in the radical restructuring of Canada’s historic relations with various parts of the world, such as Latin America, the Arab world, China, East Asia and Africa. From the outside, these changes made little sense.”

Read the story here.

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US/NATO Attack Kills 24 Pakistani Soldiers

It's a very scary incident, which makes America's already strained relations with Pakistan even worse. Some Pakistanis are talking about retaliation, I hope there is none. Pakistan is a nuclear power and if those nukes get into the wrong hands, God help us. It would be a very dangerous situation.

I think it is extremely important that US-NATO is very careful crossing borders and bombing indiscriminately. One, it violates the sovereignty of Pakistan, and second people's lives are taken, especially when you attack military establishments in Pakistan (a supposed ally).

That reminds me of the recent GOP debate on November 22nd. It was amazing how most of the candidates gave the impression that the only legitimate government in the world was the United States, that it was up to America how countries in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and North Africa, are governed.

In other words, they gave the impression that they are the world's rulers. The only person who came across as sensible was Ron Paul, he kept reminding the other candidates that these are sovereign countries, to let them resolve their own problems, especially as America had enough of its own problems domestically.

An interesting statement of Ron Paul's was that if the US had not stationed its forces on sacred Muslim sites in Saudi Arabia, 9/11 would probably have not happened. It looks in all this that anyone who makes any sense is Ron Paul, but unfortunately it does not look he will come anywhere close to being the GOP nominee.

If we want peace in the world, US and NATO should minimize their interventions in the governing of other countries.

You can read more about the Pakistan incident here.

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Stephen Harper is Working Hard to Get Results

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