Editorial

Chretien Liberals Edge Closer to War

As the American countdown towards war on Iraq continues, the Chretien Liberals have begun to hedge on their earlier pledge to not participate in such a war without UN authorization. Defence Minister John McCallum stated recently that, while his government would prefer UN authorization, it will "consider" participating in a U.S.-led war without a Security Council resolution. He then went on to admit that discussions with the Bush administration have already taken place on specific ways in which the Canadian armed forces could contribute to the American war effort, including sending more ship to the Persian Gulf and sending Canadian soldiers back to Afghanistan to free up American troops for service in Iraq.

There is, of course, little if any military significance to Canada's participation in an attack on Iraq. As in the first Gulf War, Canada could send a token force, at best. However, the political significance is considerable, both to the United States and to Canada. The Bush administration is having a difficult time selling the American people on a war that is not sanctioned by the United Nations and there is some doubt whether such authorization will be forthcoming, given the fact that the UN weapons inspectors have found no evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological or nuclear. In addition, the British government of Tony Blair, America's closest ally, is facing a revolt in its own ranks over Blair's unquestioning obedience to George W. Bush. Turkey is hesitant about its role in such a war, as are Iraq's Arab neighbours. So the Bush administration is desperate to include Canada in its aggression in order to present some facade of an "international coalition", regardless of the limited military role that Canada can play.

For its part, the capitulation of the Chretien government to the U.S. on this issue will signal the end of any pretence that the Liberals have to an independent foreign policy. It will essentially reduce Canada to the position it occupied prior to the First World War when a British declaration of war meant that Canada was also automatically at war. The only difference is that the United States no longer follows the formality of declaring war; it merely begins bombing raids, much like the Japanese in their1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

This is an issue of deep concern to a large majority of Canadians, who wish to see Canada behave as a peacekeeping nation. Canadians do not support the warmongering tradition of the United States, which has been involved in wars of one kind or another in virtually every year since 1941. They do not want to see Canada's military forces converted into an appendage of the U.S. army or Canada's foreign policy being reduced to a carbon copy of U.S. foreign policy.

However, a practical problem now faces Canadians. Neither the Liberals, nor any other party presently in Parliament, have given any indication that they will follow the wishes of the Canadian people on this issue. None of them has a program to mobilize Canadians around a program of resistance to the annexationist pressures from the South. If representative democracy cannot represent the will of a vast majority of Canadians on such a fundamental issue as whether or not Canada will continue to exist as an independent nation, then what use is it to Canadians? This is a crucial problem that Canadians are going to have to grapple with in the coming months and years.