Too Much To Dream

Since I'm here ...

Say, why did you invade Iraq? When half a million people were being slaughtered in Rwanda and Dallaire was asking for help, the US and France both prevented anything from being done.

We invaded Iraq to piss off foreigners. It has worked like a charm, so all has gone to plan.

I don't know why we didn't go into Rwanda. You'll have to ask Clinton; he was in charge then.

Mr. Lamb is Canadian; perhaps he can explain to us why Canada did not gear up and stop the slaughter.

Personally, I wish we had intervened in Rwanda, but I doubt that any such action would have made Canadians of certain political stripes more inclined to support the Iraqi campaign. We would have been reminded that we hadn't done anything about some other conflict or despot. "You can't invade Nazi-occupied France! You turned a blind eye to Ottoman despotism!"

Silly James. We are supposed to invade the countries that the Concerned Ones™ want us to invade, and leave alone the ones Our Betters (aka "The Whole Rest of the World") has business deals with has deemed "not to be a threat" to us. Of course just to keep us on our toes they won't ever tell us what countries they really mean until the deed is (or isn't) done, so they can then bite their knuckles, pull their hair, and shriek: "Aaaahhh! You were(n't) supposed to invade that country!"

Mr. Lileks is an American and evaded my question with another question. And I wasn't even being that cheeky: why Iraq and not Rwanda is a simple, direct, honest question.

As for Canada, we had peacekeepers there and here's what they said:

"I blame the American leadership, which includes the Pentagon, in projecting itself as the world policeman one day and a recluse the next,"

Andrea, I'm sorry. I didn't intend to come here as a troll. I'll stop now.

Actually, the Iraq-vs.-Rwanda question is a rather dishonest question, implying (inferring? averring?) that there is some sort of equivalency between events in two different parts of the world during two different presidential administrations. There is simply no one-size-fits-all strategy for dealing with nations-gone-bonkers, and Americans are not superhuman, we can't solve every problem in the world.

That being said, Lileks' reply was a bit of a snark, but he's not the only one tired of hearing Canadians, whose status as "peacekeepers" would be impossible if there wasn't that big bully south of its borders with all its big, bad guns on guard, sneer "so why haven't you done this and this and this" re some problem in the world. You know, I used to like Canadians -- I thought they were funny, with that sort of quirky sense of understated humor that you have to think a little to get, I used to watch all the Canadian comedy shows I could find (SCTV back when I was a kid, Kids in the Hall, etc.)... I had a crush on a Canadian kid in my high school. (In Florida.) A lot of my favorite actors happen to be Canadian. But now the country seems to be awash in some sort of bitter, one-sided, kid-brother rivalry with us. It's not fun; it's rather dismaying.

The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Marvell. I thought you hated poetry anyway.

Yes. I do. All of it. Even the poems I like blow goats. Burn all poetry!

Oh, and I like my version better. Graves, at least from Marvell's time, can't be all that private, what with all the worms and bugs nibbling at you. So I think I'll leave it.