[R-G] Imperialism and Holding the Bullys Coat

[Macdonald Stainsby]

> Engler may well have been paid by the U S to trash her book,and/ or he
> wants to curry favor with the U S and the recent Blair government.

This is utterly absurd, and also not in the spirit of this list. Several
people here have known Engler at varying levels, including his co-author
(and a previous temporary RG moderator) Anthony Fenton.

What Engler is raising is probably the most fundamentally important
polemic among Canadians-- which is what role they actually believe their
government has in the world, and for that matter for the entire history of
Canada?

Canada has never been a force for good in the world. Most Attacks on
Canadian politicians are for being "too American", which is a cover for
chauvinism about Canada-- always imperialist, settler and genocidally
racist-- as "better than the US".

I imagine that Austrian progressives have this problem: "At least we are
not German!" some may bellow. Small wonder Jorg Haider came from such
malaise.

But of course on German/Austrian nationalists I am only guessing. I *know*
that Canadians-- leading the charge to occupy/kill Afghans, exterminate
indigenous nations, slaughter the independence of the mighty Haitians, etc
etc... think their white supremacist state should be "isolationist" from
the US. In reality, the world needs to be isolationist away from Canada.

Macdonald


> There are reams of people in the U S who are ready willing and able to
> smear any publication that criticizes government figures or policies.
> That Linda Mc Quaig seems unaware of this army of misinformationists,
> well paid by the intelligence servies, surprises me.  Legislation was
> passed by both House and Senate to make such disinformation both legal
> and very well funded.
>
> respectfully, Suzanne de Kuyper
>
> suzannedk at gmail.com
>
> On 7/5/07, Sid Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:
>>
>>    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>    From: "Linda McQuaig"
>>    Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 17:33:00 -0400
>>    Subject: RE: Imperialism and Holding the Bullys Coat
>>    Sid;
>>    I read and appreciate much of the material you send out every day.
>>    I'm struck by the fact that I've never seen any reference to my new
>>    book, Holding the Bully's Coat, in anything you've sent out (even
>>    though
>>    the book would fit with much of your material) until now, when you
>>    choose to send out a negative review by Yves Engler.
>>    Engler is right that I don't deal with the role of Canadian
>>    corporations
>>    abroad. I never intended to. I agree that that would make a good
>> book,
>>    but it's not the book I set out to write. The fact that I didn't
>> write
>>    the book Engler would like to see written doesn't seem like a good
>>    reason to trash my book.
>>    It's true that I prefer the Canadian UN peacekeeping tradition to our
>>    current junior partner role in the U.S. "war on terror," but I'm not
>>    blindly supportive of the earlier role, as Engler suggests.
>>    In fact, I'm somewhat mixed in my review of the Pearson legacy. I
>>    point
>>    out clearly that Pearson's key motive in the Suez crisis wasn't
>>    high-minded helpfulness but a desire to avoid a clash between
>> Canada's
>>    two key allies, Britain and the U.S. I do praise Pearson for his
>>    critical remarks at Temple University criticizing the U.S. bombing of
>>    Hanoi, although I point out that other parts of his speech were
>>    supportive of Washington, and that much of his writings were
>>    "downright
>>    deferential to U.S. power."
>>    More importantly, I go on at length (five pages) about the complicit
>>    role Canada played under Pearson in the U.S. military build-up in
>>    Vietnam, through our failure as a member of the international
>>    commission
>>    monitoring the north-south truce to properly report serious U.S.
>>    violations. I make it clear that Canada behaved as little more than a
>>    choreboy for the U.S., just as Poland was for the Soviets, and that
>>    Canada's complicity helped Washington whitewash its behaviour in
>> front
>>    of the world. I describe all this as an early example of Canada
>>    "holding
>>    the bully's coat." So I'm not as enamoured with Pearson as Engler
>>    suggests.
>>    I also make clear that UN peacekeeping and Canada's role in it has a
>>    blemished record. I specifically point to the example of Haiti in
>> this
>>    regard, noting that Canadian peacekeepers helped prop up the ruthless
>>    right-wing regime following the U.S. overthrow of the
>>    democratically-elected Aristide government, (page 107). Later in the
>>    book, I return to this subject for two pages, raising the question of
>>    Canada's possible involvement in the overthrow of Aristide, and in
>>    fact
>>    citing Engler's book favourably on this subject in my footnotes.
>>    Oddly,
>>    Engler doesn't acknowledge any of this in his review.
>>    I'm sure there are many shortcomings in my book. But I'm amazed by
>> the
>>    way Engler chose to completely avoid dealing with any of its main
>>    themes -- Canada's involvement in the "war on terror," the increasing
>>    adoption of a militaristic, pro-war approach by Ottawa, the rise of a
>>    mini-military-industrial complex in Canada, the dramatic growth of
>> our
>>    military budgets, the media support for all this.
>>    I'm sure most of your readers aren't aware of my book, since (unlike
>>    my
>>    previous books), it's received relatively little media attention. (It
>>    hasn't even been reviewed in The Toronto Star, where I've been a
>>    columnist for the past five years.) So the first that people will
>> have
>>    heard of it may well be this negative (and in my mind completely
>>    unfair)
>>    review by Engler.
>>    Regards,
>>    Linda
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--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.