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| Civil society, missile defence, and Iraq: Can idiotic government proposals be blocked by effective and active involvement by civil society? |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
Apparently this proposed system is meant for a smaller scale attack, like an ‘accidental launch’ by a presumably incompetent Russian military, or a small attack by a an ‘evil’ state such as Iran or North Korea. But this argument doesn’t hold up either. First, if there is worry about decaying Russian nuclear silo and command facilities then the money could be better spent helping them upgrade their safeguards against an accidental launch, plus it won’t cost as much and be a more prudent measure. Second, a small state like Iran or North Korea would not likely risk their own annihilation in an American retaliatory attack if they launched one of their warheads into North America. So I doubt they would do it.
Did I forget to mention that Russia is particularly angered by the fact that the proposed shield violates the terms of the (bilateral) 1972 Anti-Ballistic Treaty signed with the United States?
Why would Canada want to bring themselves into the spotlight over these unrealistic, internationally unpopular, illegal, and wasteful American ambitions? The United States is already a heavily indebted nation, and they’re going to have trouble paying for missile defence. I hardly think they have Canada’s best interests at hand when they ask for a significant monetary contribution. Canada should continue to maintain its peaceful and diplomatic foreign policy, using force only for defence or under UN sanctioning. By associating itself with this provocative and controversial missile defence program Canada may very well damage the relatively neutral and excellent reputation it currently enjoys as a peace-keeping nation. Missile defence is something that will attract negative attention, especially from other nuclear powers.
All in all, it looks like another idiotic proposal. Hopefully, like the Iraq war, it will not materialize into an idiotic decision, at least from Canada’s perspective.
Maybe what should seriously be undertaken is better intelligence to detect any possible plans to bring in a dirty bomb or something of the sort into Canadian territory. That sounds like a more realistic defensive measure, although I personally don’t see why anyone would want to harm Canada, especially to that extent. The point is the billions of dollars of Canadian contribution can be used to increase security in far more effective and intelligent ways, with enough left-over for stuff like education, health and debt repayment. You don’t need fancy and complicated technology as a solution to everything. The Iraq war has shown the virtual impotence of all the high-tech multi-million dollar American weaponry to crush an intensifying resistance that relies on AK-47s, RPGs and homemade bombs.
So now being faced with this issue, can regular Canadians, who don’t belong to powerful lobbies or influential policy making bodies, be able to participate in the decision-making process through vocal protests and demonstrations to thwart this idiotic proposal? I have a little faith that a large enough organized nationwide protest can pressure the two Star Wars prodigies, Bill Graham and Paul Martin, whom up until recently I had some respect for, to reconsider. Although I stated that I felt that demonstrations may be ineffectual, especially if the government is determined to achieve whatever controversial proposal is put forward and if the majority of people are particularly apathetic. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.
Civil society should be able to develop a method to mobilize and alert citizens and to identify important issues that are being considered by the government. I am not talking about day to day issues, such as taxes and social services. Issues that have huge economic, political and social implications, such as the Iraq War and Missile Defence, which could have a significant impact on Canada’s future, should be identified and addressed by civil society more directly so that the interests of the people can be made clear to the government. Those in power, universally it seems, have the tendency to do ridiculous things on a regular basis. Normally this is something tolerable and expected. But if Chrétien had sent Canadian troops to Iraq, this is a decision I don’t think the majority of us could have forgiven him for.
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Riyadh Bseiso
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