Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Conflation Nation.....

.......What's Our Station?

FrameItBaby,FrameIt!
OttaWash.


So when Condi came to Canada I couldn't help but wonder if we were going all in with the Rovians.

And while I found her "The Canadian contribution to helping build stability in Afghanistan is absolutely critical to the war on terror," statement rather bizarre as she dragged Peter McKay around on a leash yesterday, that was nothing compared to the stuff that Mr. Harper read directly from the teleprompter a little later in the day.

The following, in italics, is directly from the 'official' prop-a-gannon website:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today marked the fifth anniversary of 9/11 by paying tribute to those who lost their lives on that tragic day.

So far so good (ie. no problems there)

Joined by Canadians who lost family members in the attacks on the World Trade Centre, and by those with family members serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister outlined the consequences of that fateful day five years ago.

Hang on a second..... Were the Canadians killed in the World Trade Center on an official state-sponsored mission like those killed more recently in Afghanistan? What could that be all about?

“As the events of September 11 so clearly illustrate, the horrors of the world will not go away if we turn a blind eye to them, no matter how far off they may be. These horrors cannot be stopped unless some among us are willing to accept enormous sacrifice and risk to themselves,” said the Prime Minister.

Oh..... How could I have been so thick?....Now I get it..... We are in Afghanistan, not as an exercise in nation building, as Ms. Rice kinda/sorta suggested, but instead because of 9/11. Sure, I remember that grand and sweeping national discussion and all those debates in the House of Commons on the latter point.

Sheesh.

So, now that the great national game of false equivalencies has begun in earnest, who long will it be before Canned West and/or a David Frum-led CBC airs a schlock-u-mentary blaming Mr. Dithers for the 24 Canadian deaths on 9/11?

And when we go into Anbar province to chase down the TalibaniQuedistJUIguys who have set up their new nuclear-armed fortresses on the eastern border with Syria, will it be Jean Chretien's fault because he didn't bomb Damascus in 1997?

Ridiculous questions?

Sure they are.

But the point is, once this crap starts, where does it all end?

Clearly nobody knows - just ask those Americans with a conscience that cannot believe what is being done in their name.


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PhotoCredit: Andrew Vaughan, CP/TorStar

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