You know, I was busy with last night’s gig (and a big shout out to my buddy BCL, who came by to take in the show) and feeling sorry for myself for my Man Cold©, so I didn’t get a chance to fully reflect on the following:
1. The Prime Minister said last Fall that our combat mission in Afghanistan would end, and would be “a civilian humanitarian development mission after 2011.”
2. The Liberal Party’s leader said this Spring that his party also favoured “a different role focusing on a humanitarian commitment” after 2011.
3. “Humanitarian.” They both used that word.
4. After the Liberal leader abruptly changed his mind about all this “humanitarian” stuff, so did the Prime Minister. Both of them now favour extending the war, and yet more combat roles for at least 1,000 troops.
5. There’ll be no debate about any of this in Parliament, which is, you know, the Supreme Legislature of the People. No one seems to give a shit about that.
6. To drive in the final nail in democracy’s proverbial coffin, the Prime Minister emasculates his Minister of Defence, and sends out his press secretary to tell the rest of us that we’ll be at war for a few more years. On political info-tainment shows.
7. Got all that? Whiplash-inducing reversals on all sides, open contempt for the legislature, cabinet ministers neutered in public, unelected hacks wielding the power of the executive. Oh, and, more war.
8. More war. Just like that, in the week where we are all supposed to be remembering why war is a bad thing.
9. And political people actually wonder why both the Liberals and the Conservatives are dropping below 30 per cent in the polls, and why the NDP is moving up. And they wonder why people are growing more and more cynical about democracy, and democratic institutions, and are angrily lashing out at politicians.
10. Wonder no more.
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