verbena-19

Rice's visit to Halifax

No to U.S. Intrusion into Canada's Political Affairs!

A secretary of state in a modern civilized world is a representative of a nation-state on the global stage. Cultured behaviour of such a statesperson includes not interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice violated this civil code of behaviour during a recent visit to Halifax, Canada.

Secretary Rice publicly criticized a Canadian political party represented in the House of Commons and its position on U.S.-led NATO aggression and occupation of Afghanistan. The ramifications of this absence of diplomacy immediately appeared as a front page headline in the September 13 Montreal Gazette: "RICE HAMMERS NDP PLANK."

Secretary Rice has no business politicking for or against Canadian political parties or viewpoints of the Canadian polity. The government of Canada should tell Secretary Rice that internal Canadian politics are not part of her diplomatic duties. While in Canada she must behave according to civilized rules of conduct and not attack Canadian political parties and viewpoints. Why did Foreign Minister Peter MacKay not inform her that she should refrain from such undiplomatic behaviour in the future, or she will not be allowed to return to Canada? Perhaps he thinks Canadians will conclude how powerful his Party is because it has the U.S. President's closest confidante on its side? Does this make Rice's intrusion and his silence any more appropriate? It does not. It merely shows the disgraceful situation the Harper government is creating for Canada and that the hooligan culture based on "we do it because we can" must be opposed.

Such hooligan behaviour on the part of U.S. politicians and their Canadian counterparts is not acceptable and it is despised by law-abiding Canadians. The U.S. empire-builders give themselves the right to not only criticize and comment on the internal affairs and way of life of sovereign nations, but to interfere with funds, candidates and public relations agencies in their elections. When they fail to take over states in this manner, they launch wars of aggression and occupation also in the name of high ideals. This is also what they did to change the mandate of NATO and send NATO forces to Afghanistan in the first place. NATO was established as an aggressive military organization ostensibly for operations in Europe. After the fall of the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, the U.S. expanded NATO's field of operations beyond the North Atlantic and while some NATO states agreed, the peoples of the member nations had no say in the decision.

A broad section of legitimate Canadian public opinion is opposed to NATO and demands Canada's withdrawal from it, demands its dismantling and demands the immediate removal of NATO armed forces that are attacking and occupying Afghanistan and other sovereign nations. More importantly, Canadians want to deliberate on the mission in Afghanistan because they stand for peace and don't want to support a mission which does not contribute to peace. The views of Condoleezza Rice are not welcome in this debate.

Let us see if a political party in the House of Commons will raise the matter of Secretary Rice's ugly intrusion into Canadian political affairs and demand official rebuke by the government.


No to U.S. Intrusion into Canada's Political Affairs!

posted by Annamarie at 1:00 AM