KURTENBACH: The "quagmire" of the Middle East wars

KURTENBACH: The "quagmire" of the Middle East wars

Postby Oscar » Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:39 pm

The "quagmire" of the Middle East wars

June 3, 2015

To the Editor,

Dr. Samantha Nutt, a physician, is also recognized internationally as a social activist and is knowledgeable in affairs of the Middle East. She has spent 16 years in war zone areas of the Middle East. Recently, she has declared that the military violence in that part of the world is in a "quagmire".

Some person, [author unknown] "tongue-in-cheek", has offered to explain the violence and mess in that part of our world. It is as follows: "We support the Iraqi government in the fight against ISIS. We don't like ISIS, but ISIS is supported by Saudi Arabia who we do like. We don't like Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but ISIS is also fighting against him. We don't like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS."

"So, some of our friends support our enemies, some enemies are now our friends, and some of our enemies are now fighting against our other enemies who we want to lose, but we don't want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win. If the people who we want to defeat are defeated, they could be replaced by people we like even less. All this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who were not actually there until we went in to drive them out. It's quite simple."

Canada has become a global arms dealer. In 2014, Canada sold military equipment to Saudi Arabia valued at 14 billion dollars. Some of these light tanks were seen rolling through the streets of Bahrain, helping to contain pro-democracy protests.

The power of Canada's arms industry is enormous, reaching a total of $18 billion annually. This industry involves 2,000 security and defence firms. Half of our military export sales go to the US, no export sales required.

Is the Harper government trying to assure Canadians that our security will be enhanced through military means, rather than restoring Canada's reputation as a nation of peacekeepers?

Leo Kurtenbach,
Saskatoon
Phone: 306 652 5129
Oscar
Site Admin
 
Posts: 9078
Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm

Return to Canada in MIDDLE EAST/EUROPE

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

cron