‘The Kumbaya theory of foreign relations just doesn’t cut it’
To the Expositor:
How ironic that less than one week after the election of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, United States Special Forces, accompanied by Kurdish allies, had to carry out a commando raid to free almost 70 hostages from the medievalist monsters who make up ISIS. These hostages faced an imminent and gruesome execution.
As a Canadian, I am deeply ashamed that one of the first things Justin Trudeau did after the election, was to engage in a telephone call with American president, Barak Obama, wherein he confirmed that his new government would be ending Canada’s combat role in the struggle against ISIS.
Evidently our country’s efforts will now be directed to what the Liberals call humanitarian aid. I suppose the new government will begin by taking lightning-swift action to hand out blankets, and set up soup kitchens, in the war zone. Unfortunately, neither a bowl of soup nor a warm blanket, go far to reassure someone who is about to be filmed having his head cut off with a giant machete, knowing the film will soon be broadcast on the Internet.
Mr. Trudeau has a lot of gall to proclaim to the world that, “We’re back.” Back to what?
To the wimpy/wussy foreign policy of Jean Chretien and one of the worst ministers of foreign affairs that Canada ever had—Lloyd Axworthy, with his doctrine of ‘soft power.’
It’s like Ed Morgan—now a judge on the Superior Court of Justice—said a dozen or so years ago when he was still a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto: All too often ‘soft power’ amounts to nothing more than just soft thinking.
Equally embarrassing: On the day after the Canadian election, Justin Trudeau’s big win was hailed in a front page story in one of Tehran’s major daily newspapers (I’m not making this up). The medievalist mullahs who run Iran are apparently just as pleased as ISIS with the Liberal win.
Wake up Canada: There is real evil out there in this world. The Kumbaya theory of foreign relations just doesn’t cut it.
Oh well, sunny ways.
Brad Middleton
Evansville
