How Many Hero Highways Do We Need?

Today, the mayor of Canada’s largest city is renaming parts of a major highway to honor fallen Canadian soldiers – their bodies are brought back home on these parts of the road.

Toronto Mayor David Miller will officially rename parts of the Don Valley Parkway and some local connecting side streets the “Route of Heroes.”

Previously, the province of Ontario renamed a section of Highway 401 from Trenton to the Don Valley Parkway the “Highway of Heroes.”

Both are part of the route the Canadian flag-draped caskets containing the bodies of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan take, to the coroner’s office, before being released to their families for burial.

The sacrifices men and women make for their country at times of war should be honored, respected, and as many a war memorial says “never forgotten.”
However, Canada is not at war.

SO, why are so many bodies traveling down Canadian roads – enough to prompt petty politicians to use the highways as a promotional vehicle for their own slimy images, by cutting ribbons and making declarations about heroic routes?

As of today, 147 Canadian Forces personal have been killed since their first deployment to Afghanistan in 2002 – just over the weekend another solider had died, which was not even two-weeks after the last solider was killed in the line of duty.

Yet, again – we aren’t at war.

Originally, when then-American President George W. Bush announced his shock and awe bomb attack, in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United Nations Security Council didn’t agree.

The UN wanted to find a peaceful solution first, and barring that, a planned and well-thought out approach to using military muscle.

But in keeping with his “you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists,” narrow-minded approach, President Bush went ahead and destroyed most of the infrastructure of Afghanistan and Iraq, all under the guise of getting their alleged ring leader – Bin Ladden.

Whatever happened to Bin Ladden? We never hear about him, other than the occasional poorly recorded audio or video of him ranting like a crazed lunatic.
You’d probably go crazy too if you had a redneck American president making threatening statements about having your head on a platter.

Not that Bin Ladden wasn’t crazy before all this – he may have been – we’ll never know.

President Bush failed in his attempts to nail the blame squarely on Bin Ladden, so he went after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and eventually did get his head on a platter – sort of. Hussein was hung quite publicly for the world to see on YouTube – probably the first world leader to be executed live, on the Internet.

Regardless of whether or not Bin Ladden, Saddam Hussein, or anyone else the Americans have labeled “terrorists” – Canada really has no part in their so-called “war on terror.”

Yes, we are allies of the States, and should support them in peace and in war.

But in typically Canadian fashion, our politicians have sat directly in the middle of the fence on the issue and that is what is killing our soldiers.

Canada isn’t officially at war, and being the backbone of the United Nations peace keeping forces for so long, we have a reputation of supporting the UN at all costs.

Yet the UN hasn’t stepped into the American’s so-called “war on terror” because they never supported the poorly planned vengeful attacks by their redneck leader, President Bush.

So our government sends thousands of Canadian soldiers to bolster up the Americans war efforts, with little planning – because the Canadian politicians don’t want to alienate the UN – and we end up with a never-ending parade of flag-draped caskets traveling our renamed highways.

Maybe our politicians should spend more time planning military strategies and tactics, instead of how to creatively rename a highway to get a photo op.

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Flying Naked – Full Body Scanners Come to Canada

Canada’s federal Transportation Minister John Baird held a press conference yesterday, where he announced the installation of 44 clothing-penetrating, full body scanners at 11 Canadian airports within the next two-months.

These scanners create a three-dimensional image of a person’s naked body, allowing airport security officers to see you in your birthday suit.

Though not all passengers will be seen sans clothes. Considered an alternative to a physical search, Government officials say these devices will only be used on passengers 18-years-old and older, that security feels merit a secondary screening.

These full body scanners were already being tested in Kelowna, British Columbia, off Canada’s west-coast, and will now be in use at airports in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and in Vancouver.

At a cost of $250,000 CDN a pop, this is no small investment for the Canadian government, but since the Christmas Day attack aboard a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit, the Canadian government is following the lead of the American government and ramping up airport security.

Or is the Canadian government just doing what our American big brother wants us to do?

American authorities want Canada, and all other countries around the world, to do quite a bit to keep America safe.

Using clothing-penetrating full body scanners raises numerous privacy concerns – essentially it allows complete strangers to take and store digital images of you completely naked. Though Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart says she approved the scanners only on the condition that the security officer viewing these naked full body images be in a separate room, and never actually see the passenger being screened. She also demanded that the digital image would have to be deleted once the passenger leaves the airport.

However, there are no guarantees that the federal Privacy Commissioner’s conditions will always be followed. Once a digital image is created, it can be copied, moved and stored pretty much anywhere. Just because it is deleted off the originating machine which created it, doesn’t mean it is gone for good.

When these clothing-penetrating full body scanners were first announced in the U.S., one of the immediate concerns was naked images of celebrities “suddenly” being found online for sale on places such as eBay.

And you don’t have to be famous to end up naked on eBay – anyone could fall victim to this.

So far, this hasn’t happened, but then these devices are relatively new, just starting to make their way into American and Canadian airports.

One of the less discussed, but just as personally intrusive requests the American government is placing on all countries is the sharing of passenger information.
The American government has sent formal requests to countries which have airlines flying planes across American airspace, requesting personal passenger information -- even if those passengers will never land at an American airport.
This personal information includes full legal names, citizenship, birth date, and destination.

There hasn’t been any indication of what action – if any – American authorities would take having this information. They could advise or warn other countries and/or airlines of possible persons of interest. Or a more drastic action would be to ban specific planes from flying through American airspace if American authorities don’t like one or more of the passengers or crew. And American authorities have been vague with just how long they would keep this information, and for what purposes.

So far, Canadian and many European countries have refused to provide this information for their passengers – it’s been a year since the Americans made the request. But with increased security measures being taken worldwide because of the recent Christmas Day terror incident, the American government could begin demanding this information, restricting air travel through American airspace to airlines which comply.

This would create chaos at airports around the world, as flights were delayed or canceled completely because of the new American airspace restrictions.

And even with all these new security measures in place, we still will never be completely safe. As soon as a security measure is taken, you can almost guarantee someone, somewhere around the world is working on ways to bypass it.

The only real way to prevent terrorism is to stop it in its tracks. George W. Bush coined the phrase the “war on terror,” and that in a literal sense is what it is – a war.

Although former U.S. President Bush’s “war” was questionable – he and his team falsified documents to justify attacking Iraq, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (which he didn’t) and he sent troops to Afghanistan to “get Bin Laden,” but he never did, nor has anyone else.

The only real way to prevent terrorism is to win the war. Adding security at airports only challenges the terrorists to go further, and incites them to try harder. To win the war, we have to capture and imprison those who recruit, train and motivate people to do terrorist acts, and we have to capture and imprison those who have been recruited, trained and motivated to do these acts.

Until then, clothing-penetrating full body scanners and the sharing of personal passenger information may slow the terrorists down, but it will not stop them.

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A Visit to the White House – What a Nice Distraction

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper took a joy ride south of the border last Wed. – or at least that’s probably how it seemed to him.

He met with American President Barack Obama for an hour-long meeting in the White House’s Oval Office. The two leaders discussed the economy, just ahead of the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh starting today and running through the weekend.

They also discussed each country’s roles in the mission to Afghanistan. Canada has had soldiers in the battle-whipped country for over eight-years, but there are plans to pull all Canadian Forces troops out in 2010.

President Obama on the other hand is pushing for more American soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan this year and next year.

Canadian Soldiers should never have gone to Afghanistan in the first place – and will most likely end up in another place they should never be sent – Iraq in 2010 or 2011.

Afghanistan and Iraq are strictly American conflicts, begun by then-American President George W. Bush. Bush, the sly scoundrel he is, used the intense emotions stirred in his citizens by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 to launch attacks on these two relatively innocent countries.

President Bush originally launched air strikes in Afghanistan in what he called his “shock and awe” military attack, to get Bin Ladden and those responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on American soil.

Almost a decade later, Bin Ladden (who boldly boasts of his success in his involvement of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but no one anywhere has actually provided proof of his involvement) is still running free, occasionally popping up to in grainy videos to taunt the Americans.

As the hunt for Bin Ladden dragged on, the American political machine needed a new scapegoat to distract the public’s attention from their failing mission in Afghanistan (the goal was to get Bin Ladden).

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

That’s when President Bush and the rest of the executive branch of the White House launched their smear campaign against Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

They claimed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and urged the United Nations (UN) to take actions against Iraq. Despite all the doctored images – which looked real at the time but have since been proved tampered with – the UN didn’t budge and would not support an outright attack against Iraq.

The UN did begin sanctions against Iraq, and sent over their own inspectors, to look for these weapons of mass destruction.

None were ever found, and the UN was satisfied Iraq and its leader were in the clear.

But trigger-happy American President Bush still launched an attack against Saddam Hussein, and in the process destroyed all the infrastructure of the tiny Middle Eastern country in the process.

Canadian soldiers are dying in great numbers in Afghanistan, as American soldiers are dying also in great numbers in Iraq.

But both these missions were unnecessary, and mismanaged from the get-go. American President Bush didn’t really care about bring those responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to justice, he just used that event to go after the countries in the Middle East with the richest oil reserves, to secure oil for his country, and his former colleagues in the oil industry from where he originally came.

Image via Wikipedia

Now America’s current leader, President Obama has to deal with the massive cost, lost lives, and lack of any signs of real victory in two wars. He’s also struggling with his push to launch universal, government-funded healthcare across all 50 States, similar to our Canadian healthcare system.

Here on his home turf, the Canada’s top politician is being made to jump over massive hurdles, just to do his job. Some of the heat is due in part because he’s only got a minority government, the other part is due to the childish antics of the opposition parties.

Prime Minister Harper is always facing threats of election calls for his head, by the Bloc, the Liberals, the New Democratic Party, or a combination of them. Currently, the Liberal Party is threatening to call a non-confidence vote to end the Prime Minister’s rule, and lead Canadians into yet another federal election – has it even been a year since the last election?

With the intense pressures both the current American and Canadian leaders are facing, their meeting must have been a nice distraction from the horrors of their worlds. Let’s just hope that distraction was short lived, and they can both get back to the business of running their respective countries.

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Reflections on the War on Terror

Where were you yesterday morning, eight-years ago?

I remember exactly where I was. I was working for a medium-sized financial software company, and I had been busily typing away on a tight deadline. I had got in early that morning, so around 9am when my co-workers started to arrive, I had already been in the office for a few hours.

“Did you see what happened,” one of my co-workers said as she came in.

Image via Wikipedia

I had no idea what she was talking about, and when she told me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, I didn’t believe her.

Then more colleagues came in, saying another plane had crashed into the other twin tower.

We didn’t have a TV at the office, but we all had Internet access, so we all were watching the horrific events of September 11, 2001 unfold on the various news websites. I was on CNN.com – which kept updating their front page with the latest headlines – this was long before live video-streaming was popular online. In fact, there were so many “hits” on the CNN.com site, that it eventually crashed.

Image via Wikipedia

When news spread of the collapse of the first tower, we were all in shock. The office was located above a shopping mall, and there was a RadioShack downstairs.

We hustled downstairs, and gathered around people from other offices and shoppers in the mall at the RadioShack, all trying to see the live coverage on the TVs for sale.

I don’t think anyone got much work done that day – we were all so wrapped up in the events which eventually launched the American “War on Terror,” dramatically increased the security at all airports and border crossings, and changed the world in many other ways.

The attacks on the World Trade Centers eight-years ago really did change the world. The most powerful nation on the planet had taken a major hit, and since then, as been involved in a war which sees no end, has cost thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars.

It’s even involved a beheading or two – probably more – but these gruesome acts pale into comparison to the tragic oil-greedy American invasion of Iraq.

Despite former American President George W. Bush’s claims, and later Former Secretary of State Colin Powel’s presentation to the United Nations (UN) at the time, the American’s never were able to prove Iraq’s perceived threat. At the time, they claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and were trying to sway the UN security council to get on-board the attack the Americans were about to engage in.

“You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists,” threatened then Am

Image via Wikipedia

erican President George W. Bush – the ultimate bully in the so-called “War on Terror.”

President Bush created a war machine which immediately sought justice for the attacks of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center eight-years ago. Within hours after the attacks, they had already started spreading rumors that it was Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Iraq, and Saddam Hussein.

The Americans began bombing Afghanistan to get Bin Laden – destroying the infrastructure, displacing millions of innocent civilians, killing thousands – but never ever catching Bin Laden. For all we know, Bin Laden is living the good life in the States, protected by the very people supposedly out to get him – with or maybe even without their knowing it.

Despite the UN’s uneasiness in what was obviously an American-led war to secure more oil in the Middle East, Afghanistan became a humanitarian cause. Now the UN gets involved, not to defend American interests, but to police a wild country, where even the local population has been pitted against each other, just to survive.

Canada, being a strong supporter of the UN since its inception has sent thousands of Canadian soldiers to

Image via Wikipedia

Afghanistan, resulting in far too many Canadian deaths for a war which should never have occurred in the first place.

Canadian soldiers will probably continue to die in the Middle East – most likely in Iraq, when the UN will eventually tackle the latest American Viet Nam.

Viet Nam was a war to stop the spread of Communism, started by the ever-trigger-happy Americans. The war was so poorly planned, it turned into a blood bath for both sides, with no real winner, but many losers.

Iraq is just like Viet Nam – it has been poorly planned, organized, and should never have happened. It has resulted in continuous deaths of Americans, and locals, and there is no clear winner – but again – many losers.

I remember where I was on September 11, 2001 – and worse – I see how our planet has been scorched by it, in ways we will never be able to repair.

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