A perspective on Paris

"Iraqcivcas" by Hannah Fischer, Information Research Specialist- Knowledge Services Group - en:Congressional Research Service. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

What happened last night in Paris was an average night in Iraq for about 2 years.

Those two years were part of a hideous tapestry of violence that began with the American invasion of 2003 and isn't over yet.  That's just Iraq.

Afghanistan - quasi-legal invasion and incompetent occupation by white Christian armies

Libya - quasi-legal bombing campaign (begun with some really adolescent enthusiasm by France and subsequently conducted by rogue elements in NATO) that resulted in anarchy and destruction of society, which is apparently of interest to nobody, including France

Syria - Oh, God

Mali - see Libya

Egypt - it's so nice to have our vicious autocratic kleptocracy back on our side

Palestine and the occupied territories - "sorry?"

Last night in Paris didn't come out of nowhere.  There's more than one monster rampaging in the Middle East.

Remembrance Day, 1944

Matthew Halton, CBC

Awww... Foreign Affairs is thrilled to see the Liberals

So, let's talk about that.

There are questions about the last 10 years in Foreign Affairs, about people who were complicit with Harper and people who weren't.  For starters:

1. Whatever happened to David Mulroney?

2. Who was the woman from DFAIT who put down her pen whenever torture was discussed in Afghanistan?

3.  Where was the Deputy Minister when Richard Colvin was being fucked around by the Department of Justice?

Disasters occurred, people were tortured, Canadians died, careers were advanced.  Why look back when we can look forward?

As our investigation progressed, we were able to move closer to the key centres of responsibility as we moved up the chain of command.

Unfortunately, the Minister's decision of January 10, 1997, eliminated any possibility of taking this course to its logical conclusion and prevented us from fully expanding the focus to senior officers throughout the chain of command who were responsible before, during and after the Somalia mission.

- Executive Summary, Somalia Inquiry

People and power

Or, Lord Acton again

"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it."[7]

Any person who achieves power, sincerely believing in the importance of accountability, will find that the importance of accountability declines rapidly to zero as a function of time.

At its natural limit, desire for power excludes desire for accountability.

The healthy consequence of absolute lack of accountability is absolute lack of power.

Surgical precision in Kunduz

MSF Review Kunduz bombing

Tobogganing in Afghanistan with Genghis Khan

The Afghan - Mongol war happened about the same time as the Magna Carta. 

The Magna Carta evolved. 

Genghis Khan didn't.

NATO evolved with Genghis Khan.

The Unremembered, Renata D'Aliesio

Renata D'Aliesio, Globe and Mail, 3 Nov 15