Lawrence Cannon will be relieved that the G8 foreign ministers meeting has wrapped up and Hillary Clinton is back in Washington haranguing Bill. For the past two days, the Foreign Minister has worn the look of a man hosting a dinner party for his boss.
As was once said of Margaret Thatcher, Mrs, Clinton is democratic enough to talk down to anyone — and presumptuous enough to criticize her host for organizing an Arctic conference that didn’t include all countries in the region.
She told CTV that she wasn’t happy about Canadian troops pulling out of Afghanistan, and compounded Mr. Cannon’s misery at the closing press conference yesterday by contradicting the Conservative government’s policy on maternal health in the Third World, by saying any discussion had to address issues about abortion. It was clear to everyone by this time that Mr. Cannon was being smacked with the full weight of the Secretary of State’s purse.
The U.S. has not, by all accounts, formally asked Canada to keep its troops in Afghanistan post-2011, but it has made clear its displeasure at what some Americans see as Canada deserting the battlefield. As Charles Ritchie, the storied Canadian diplomat once noted, the Americans never listen — “the phrase ‘consulting with allies’ is apt to mean, in U.S. terms, briefing allies, lecturing allies and sometimes pressuring allies.”
Still, if we accept that the main business of Canadian foreign policy is maintaining good relations with the U.S. while preserving our self-respect, how do we retrieve the situation?
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What must be most galling to Hillary the Hectoring Harridan from Hades is that Canada is doing what many if not most of her most rabid supporters would do and that is end hostilities in Afghanistan.
Well guess what HtHHfH if your boss, Comrade Oblamebush, would not of wasted months trying to find a way to ignore his generals he would have had the aid of the Canadians for that time.
However since Comrade Oblamebush and his minion HtHHfH has traveled the world bowing before dictators and dumping on allies it would seem you have run out of friends. Too bad so sad 2014 can’t come fast enough.
“she wasn’t happy about Canadian troops pulling out of Afghanistan”
PMSH is not Obama’s puppet.
Can you imagine if Condi Rice had pulled this Hildebeast statement a few years ago? The MSM pretzels would have been inflamed that Bush-Hitler was trying to run Canada’s Foreign Policy.
“Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader, did say that there has been an absence of leadership from the Conservatives on the shape of the post-2011 mission”
Iggy, we aren’t utopians. Unlike you, we don’t fantasize “on the shape” the Taliban will be in by 2011. We admit what is impossible to know. Therefore we can’t draw up an imaginary scenario of what to do in 2011 yet. This isn’t a Harvard classroom. This is the real world and we are fighting a death cult of Islamofascists. This is not just a committee of some “post” modern, appeasing, Kumbayah, UN apparatchiks; where we all hold hands and sing songs around the campfire.
So Iggy, IF things have settled down in Afghanistan and the surge is as successful as it was in Iraq, we’ll probably carry on and help with infrastructure in Afghanistan. But IF it is still a raging battle, we aren’t spending more of our blood and treasure on it. It’s time for the Afghans ( maybe with some help from Obama’s progressive Euroweenie pals) to step up and decide the kind of country they want. The Taliban does not want peace, they want control; the Hildebeast should be able to understand the need for control, she’s part of that kind of regime herself.
Who does Billary think she is, a Republican? As the two american parties must think “Hey, its only Canada so we can keep pushing them around.”
Gee, if they only had weapons of mass destruction.
it almost looked to me like Jon Ibbitson and Tom Clark knew last week that Hillary was coming to bad mouth Canada. They were certainly predicting the USA ask… I suspect the connections between the Clintons and the Liberal Party in Canada run very deep.
But surely the USA would not be trying to influence Canadian Politics.
What say you?
It’s OK everyone. Obama dismisses her all the time. We should do the same.
She is to be ignored.
What is a combat role or a non-combat role in a war zone ? At the very least any Canadian forces still there would have to be armed if only to protect any Canadians working on infrastructure or humanitarian help: Build a school you have to defend the school if you want it still there the next morning ! Ideally the locals should be able and willing to eventually do the job themselves.
Hillary doesn’t seem to understand ” diplomacy ” when diplomacy means convincing instead of nagging, but then with Bill nagging is something she must have a lot of practice doing.
Perhaps Hillary should pay more attention to nukes in Iran and North Korea rather than exporting the destruction of fetuses to other countries.
John, your confusing Billary with the Bushman who gave both North Korea and Pakistan a ‘pass’ with their nukes. I hope someone is guarding Pakistan’s nukes as that country is fast falling apart. Also, Pakistans top nuclear scientist got caught selling his countrys nuke technology to the bad guys and merely got a slap on the wrist.
Is there one picture of Hillory where she isn’t shooting daggers with her eyes, and that grim mouth. Wonder what a body language expert would say.
She is a very unhappy lady, in her marriage, and in her position as Sec of State. She has very little, if any power.
Perhaps she thinks Canada is just a right wing conspiracy.
Where is Carolyn Parrish, stamping on dolls, when one needs her.
The USA might have a Democratic Pres, but the Senate and Congress still has all those that have been there for decades-like the liberal Caucus.
UV .. gets it backwards again.
Clinton sent Jimmah Cahtah to negotiate with the Norks .. ‘nuff said.
Whereas, Bush named the Norks in the Axis of Evil.
As a result of taking a stand on evil in Iraq , what fell out of that is the Pakistan Nuke guy confessed to peddling nukes.Then Libya’s Gaddafi who had benefited from that peddling, fearing he’d be the next Saddam, turned over his nuclear program.
Had a giggle at Iffy’s expense today when he was trying to get PM Harper cornered and wound up looking like an IDIOT. According to Iffy we should be tailoring our foreign policy to lapdog the Americans. Whatever Oblamebush and Hillary his Hectoring Harridan from Hades says Canada is supposed to follow like it is some kind of Holy Writ.
Memo to Iffy. Canada is not an American state and the American Federal Government has no jurisdiction here.
I think the whole affair is rather amusing. The Canadian foreign minister, a non-entity if ever there was one, is lectured by a Secretary of State who has very little clout in the fashioning of US foreign policy. Still, the incident speaks volumes of the value the US places on the Canada-US relationship. We are a vassal state and, while Harper (and most of his predecessors) likes to fool himself that he is an important international figures, he is seen as little more than a feudal baron in Washington.