Ignatieff speaks out - Reply

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Collins Reply to: Ignatieff speaks out

----- Original Message -----
From: Colin J. Williams
To: Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca
Cc: mvalpy@globeandmail.com ; Gord Brown, M.P.
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2007 6:26 PM
Subject: globeandmail.com (August 3, 2007): Ignatieff speaks out

Dear Mr. Ignatief,

It is good to see, from Michael Valpy's article, that you have rethought your support for the Anglo-American attack on Iraq.

In the article, reference is made to Saddam Hussein's malignant intentions. I am puzzled by this. In our legal system, we usually punish actions rather than intentions.

Is it still your view that either the international community or the imperial power should take it upon themselves to punish miscreants for their intentions?

It seems that your awakening is only with respect to the calculation of imponderables.

I suggest that your political actions, since you returned to Canada are of much more interest to Canadians these days. A group of 24 Liberal MP's supported the extension of the Afghanistan mission to 2009. With the benefit of hindsight, was that a good move?

How many Afghan people have we and our allies killed?

We have brought some small benefit to the Afghan people but was the cost, in casualties and treasure, commensurate with these benefits?

The two failed British campaigns of the 19th century had a clear purpose, it was to protect the Indian Empire against the Russians.

The failed Russian campaign in the 20th century had a clear purpose, it was to support an existing communist government.

The failed American campaign of the 21st century also had a clear purpose, it was to capture Osama bin Ladin.

What was our purpose in extending the mission?

Is there any way in which negotiation with the Taliban can achieve at least some part of our purpose?

Finally, I agree with the final comments of Messrs Bercusson and Byers and applaud you for wrestling with the history of Iraq.

Unfortunately, the sub-heading of the article:

Liberal deputy leader awakens to grim reality of political betrayal
is most misleading, beyond telling us that Bob Rae is not the target of your concern, the article tells us nothing about political betrayal.

Yours sincerely

Colin J. Williams
Brockville

cc: Michael Valpy, Globe and Mail
Gord Brown, MP
Council of Canadians

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Ignatieff speaks out

Liberal deputy leader awakens to grim reality of political betrayal

MICHAEL VALPY From Friday's Globe and Mail

August 3, 2007 at 1:41 AM EDT

TORONTO — It's a quicksand world of shifting loyalties, betrayal, revenge and sometimes tawdry theatre that Michael Ignatieff has discovered in 18 months of political life – a world of vituperative attacks that is more often coloured by failure than by success.

“The vital judgments a politician makes every day are about people, whom to trust, whom to believe and whom to avoid,” the onetime Harvard political scientist and now deputy leader of the federal Liberal Party tells an American audience in this The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.

“The question of loyalty arises daily: Who will betray and who will stay true? Having good judgment in these matters, having a sound sense of reality, requires trusting some very unscientific intuitions about people. In practical politics, there is no science of decision-making.”

It's a rare exercise in self-scrutiny and an awakening awareness of living in the world of politics by a senior Canadian politician.

Michael Ignatieff, shown at his Toronto condo, says he was wrong to support the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. He writes that he failed to accurately calculate the costs to the Iraqi people. (Ryan Carter for The Globe and Mail)

In the article he declares flat out that he was wrong to support the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a U.S.-led military coalition, a position that brought widespread criticism from the U.S. academic community and travelled with him – like the black cloud over the head of Al Capp's legendary cartoon character Joe Btfsplk – when he left Harvard and returned to Canada to run for Parliament in Toronto's Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding for a party that opposed the invasion.

Asked in an interview this week if his comments about betrayal and loyalty were references to Bob Rae, who for years was his closest friend until they fell out over their respective campaigns for last year's Liberal Party leadership, Mr. Ignatieff jokingly replied: “I wrote it for no other purpose. The only thing.”

Read the rest of the story at:

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