prime minister harper cbc interview january 16, 2012: prime minister stephen harper states he will...
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8/3/2019 Prime Minister Harper CBC Interview January 16, 2012: Prime Minister Stephen Harper States He Will Decide War W…
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper States He Will Decide War With Iran in Secret With “Allies”! No Mention of Consulting the Canadian People or Parliament
Don Currie, Editor Focus On Socialism, Chair CPS January 17, 2012
www.FocusOnSocialism.ca
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www.FocusOnSocialism.ca PM Harper says He Will Decide War with Iran in Secret with “Allies” Page 2 of 4
A convenient thing about being Prime Minister of Canada is that handlers can arrange a CBC
primetime interview and be confident that regardless of how banal the questions and how
preposterous the
answers
the
event
will
be
dutifully
spun
to
the
gullible
as
credible.
The Prime Minister with a straight face told Peter Mansbridge in an exclusive CBC interview
that Iran “frightens him.” Claiming it was "beyond dispute" that Iran is developing nuclear
weapons because Iranians are religious fanatics and prepared without hesitation to use such
weapons to achieve religious or political purposes.1 Peter Mansbrige let him get away with
that racist and bizarre canard.
If one missed who Prime Minister Harper was referring to one might have concluded he was
talking about Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, far right US Republican
presidential candidates,
all
of
whom
proudly
proclaim
their
religious
fanaticism
and
state
their readiness to bomb Iran with our without Congressional approval.2
The Prime Minister’s right‐wing US Republican political kin aspire to be President of the only
country in the world that has ever used nuclear weapons on civilian populations, maintains
hundreds of nuclear weapons on hair trigger standby and can deliver them anywhere on the
planet via a global satellite system of delivery interconnected with about 800 military bases
and nuclear equipped fleets, one of which cruises near the coastal waters of Iran. Both the
US and NATO maintain a preemptive first strike nuclear doctrine.
Prime Minister
Harper,
touted
as
an
astute
politician
and
promoted
as
having
international
credentials, simply avoids addressing the possibility that the Iranian government may have a
legitimate concern about the threat posed by the USA to its vital security, economic
interests, its sovereignty and its right to sell its oil to whomever it wishes.
Prime Minister Harper believes such a right only accrues to Canada. Sounding downright
patriotic the Prime Minister asserted in his interview with Mansbridge that Canada will not
tolerate US interference in the government’s plans to facilitate the export of Alberta oil to
Asian markets via the Gateway pipeline and remarked caustically that US environmentalist
interference
was
tantamount
to
considering
Canada
as
a
“national
park”.
One
would
have
thought given such a defense of Canadian sovereignty that the Prime Minister would
1 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/17/pol‐harper‐iran.html
2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think‐tanked/post/irans‐ahmadinejad‐in‐latin‐america‐mitt‐romney‐is‐
unelectable‐says‐ jon‐huntsman‐and‐more‐am‐briefing/2012/01/10/gIQAJbqznP_blog.html
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www.FocusOnSocialism.ca PM Harper says He Will Decide War with Iran in Secret with “Allies” Page 3 of 4
understand better the concern of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad who rejects
the US claim that the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman should be considered US lakes.
Prime Minister Harper with the assistance of the likes of Peter Mansbridge is engaged in fear
mongering. Massive US‐NATO retaliatory power ranged against Iran is comforting to the
Prime Ministers adoring philistine circle that believes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if not deposed
in another NATO regime change war will force Canadians to convert to Islam, steal all RRSP
savings, ban Tim Hortons and compel the Toronto Maple Leafs to re‐locate to Tehran. What
else can one say except to ridicule the Prime Minister’s ludicrous double standard?
Prime Minister Harper is making it all up for his fans. He is simply attempting once again to
prepare the Canadian people for another G7‐NATO war, again against an oil rich Middle
Eastern state
that
poses
no
threat
to
Canada
or
its
people.
Prime Minister Harper is reckless in the extreme in his statements. Standing beside President
Obama in Washington last December he said in his usual unctuous style that US enemies
cannot be friends of Canada.
Where does that put the Canadian people if the Prime Minister decides at Brussels and not in
Parliament to once again propel the country into another NATO regime change war this time
with Iran?
What
are
some
the
realities?
The people of Iran are dependent on 80% of their country’s revenue from oil exports, 20% of
which goes to the EU, 450,000 barrels a day to Italy, Greece and Spain all members of NATO,
all ostensibly Canada’s allies. One wonders why Peter Mansbridge, a media icon, wasn’t
astute enough to ask who it is that Prime Minister Harper consults with in secret about a war
on Iran? Does it include Spain, Italy and Greece all NATO members and allies and all
dependent on Iranian oil? Are these countries mired in an EU financial crisis, prepared to go
to war with Iran and if they aren’t and oppose a US‐NATO attack on Iran because it will
endanger their oil imports, will they become Canada’s enemies?
One wonders what the Italian‐Canadian, Spanish‐Canadian and Greek‐Canadian communities
will say about a NATO war that endangers the oil supplies of their homelands?
The foreign policy of the Harper Conservative government is not a Canadian policy it is a
NATO war policy. Prime Minister Harper’s Conservative government has no peace policy.
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The NATO war policy is based on a long standing US imperialist strategy to overthrow all oil
rich regimes in the Middle East that do not abjectly accede to US foreign policy diktat.
A Canadian government representing the prevailing sentiment among Canadians for peace
and friendship, mutual beneficial trade without political sanctions and threats, with all
peoples, regardless of the economic and political system they choose, could be making a
major contribution to world peace and would serve Canada’s interests.
The Harper Conservative government is not that government. The Conservative
Government is a NATO war government. It has no independent foreign and peace policy
based on the interests of the Canadian people and independent of NATO and its principal
partner, the USA.
What is inexplicable is that there is not a single opposition party in Parliament that has the
courage to say so and advocate a Canadian foreign policy of peace in opposition to Prime
Minister Harper’s foreign policy of NATO regime change wars.
If Canadians are to have peace we need a government that promotes it. That means
extricating Canada from NATO and the sooner the better.