• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe: Ukraine & Russia
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Rwandan genocide

Canada’s Role in the Coalition: a New Role

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Terrorism, The Middle East

≈ Comments Off on Canada’s Role in the Coalition: a New Role

Tags

Blue Berets, Canada's Traditional Role, Isis is a real threat, Roméo Dallaire, Rwandan genocide, Support for President Obama, Syria 2013, The Middle East

islam-art3-11
Woman with a Spray of Flowers, Safavid Iran, 1575 CE (Photo credit: mesosyn.com)

I have updated my last post. I wanted to make it very clear that I understood the Canadian Parliament’s decision to enter the Coalition fighting Isis. However, I would have been one of the 134 members who voted against military involvement in the Middle East, and I am not alone. The vote took place on 7 October 2014: 157 in favour and 134 against. Members of Parliament were therefore divided over this issue. Irwin Cotler, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Mount-Royal, abstained from voting, which was significant.

http://irwincotler.liberal.ca/

Tradition

Traditionally, Canadians have opposed “military engagement.” However, Canada has provided humanitarian relief to victims of wars, famines, dictatorships, genocides, natural disasters, etc. To a large extent, Canada is a country of refugees and this has influenced its role on the international scene.

We have served as peacekeepers or casques bleus, blue berets, for the United Nations and many Canadians have died performing their peacekeeping duties or have returned home profoundly distressed.

Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire

Retired Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire (Chris Wattie, Reuters)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/isis-mission-divided-uncertain-canada-edges-gingerly-into-iraq-1.2789516 (old news)

The Rwandan Massacre: Roméo Dallaire

For example, retired Lieutenant-General and Senator Roméo Dallaire[1] was the United Nations Force Commander posted in Rwanda during the Rwandan Genocide that took place in 1993-1994. The Rwandan genocide claimed approximately 800,000 lives in the conflict between Hutu-led extremists and moderate Tutsis and Hutus. (See Rwandan Genocide, Wikipedia). It was a civil war. Roméo Dallaire’s international forces could have curbed the genocide considerably, were it not that, back at the UN, former colonial powers were arguing.

“There were early signs that something was amiss when, on January 22, 1994, a French DC-8 aircraft landed in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, loaded with ammunition and weapons for the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR). Through an informant, Dallaire learned that these weapons were to be used for an attack on Tutsis after the Belgians would have been forced to withdraw by violence orchestrated by the Interahamwe [Hutu-led army]. Despite his telegram to the UN, Dallaire was not permitted to seize the weapons, as this was deemed to be an action beyond his UN mandate.” (Roméo Dallaire, Wikipedia)

The Belgians were withdrawn after the torture and murder of ten members of the 2nd Commando Battalion (Belgium). Dallaire considered the Belgians “his best-trained and best-equipped” soldiers. (See Roméo Dallaire, Wikipedia.)

Women were raped, HIV disseminated, and Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire could not help because he was not allowed to do so by the United Nations. He returned home suffering from Post-Traumatic Disorder, but he wrote a complete account of the genocide: Shake Hands with the Devil (Random House Canada, September 2003). Roméo Dallaire was assigned duties he was prevented from carrying out.

The United Nations

de-personalizing members of the Coalition
 

In theory, it was the United Nations’ role to allow Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire to seize the weapons. A genocide may have been averted, but the UN failed its Force Commander. However, it is not my role to point a guilty finger at the UN because it cannot do what its members oppose. The UN is not guilty.

Yet, it would be for the UN, or a similar agency, to lead the fight against Isis. At the moment, the conflict is personalized. The Coalition is described as a US-led Coalition. Because the United States has an immense arsenal, the world seeks its assistance. Canada, however, has its own arsenal, humble as it may be. Besides, it will be working with the United States fighting a genuine threat. The United States would not be fighting Isis if it did not have to.

As for Canada, given that would-be Isis militants killed two Canadian soldiers, Canadians know that extremists can inflict considerable harm, which is what Isis is doing in the Middle East. Zehaf-Bibeau found his way to the Parliamentary Library. Isis must be defeated and its leaders will have to face the International Court of Justice. The world can no more tolerate Isis’ barbaric beheadings than it could tolerate Hitler’s atrocities.

The Players

the “players”
Syria 2013
Bashar al-Assad
Vladimir Putin
 

On 21 August 2013, Syria “gassed to death” 1,429 of its citizens, including 426 children, using a chemical weapon, or weapon of mass destruction. Syria’s purpose was unacceptable and the use of a chemical weapon, sarin, prohibited by international law.[2]

The world community condemned Bashar al-Assad who was let off the hook when he accepted to get rid of his chemical weapons, a solution proposed in an off-the-cuff remark by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Assad’s main ally at the time was Russian President Vladimir Putin who suggested to Assad that he could get rid of his chemical weapons.

Is Isis taking advice?

Is Isis taking advice, and if so, whose advice is it taking? The US, Canada, and other members of the Coalition are fighting Isis only. However, there could be other “players.” If there are other players, they should be identified because we have to see the big picture. Canadian authorities must therefore be very thorough in their current investigation.

The Strategy

Moreover, Canadian authorities must ascertain that Canada’s intervention is successful in a not-too-distant future. We have all read or heard that the US may be at war for a very long time. That should not be. I believe the Coalition can devise a strategy that is focused, swift and as definitive as it can be.

In early October, retired Lieutenant-General and Senator Roméo Dallaire stated that air strikes would be ineffective. There must be “feet on the ground.” He said: “Whack them, and whack them good.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/isis-mission-divided-uncertain-canada-edges-gingerly-into-iraq-1.2789516

I would not use the same words, but feet on the ground may be necessary and terrorism is a great evil that must be uprooted.

Locating Isis’ Recruits

locating Isis’ recruits
 

Given that Isis attracts terrorists who travel to the Middle East to join its ranks, investigators must also locate Isis’ membership. “Jihadi John” is a Londoner and Martin Couture-Rouleau, who rammed his car into two soldiers, killing one, was a French-Canadian “convert.” We have to know what is happening.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/who-is-martin-couture-rouleau-1.2807285

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/martin-couture-rouleau-hit-and-run-driver-arrested-by-rcmp-in-july-1.2807078

Conclusion

Canadians in various wars, minimal participation
good reasons for joining the Coalition
 

It is extremely difficult to make sense of Isis. I have described “Jihadi John” as a person incapable of feeling remorse, but this description also fits his cohorts. The distance between London and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is considerable. Yet Couture-Rouleau killed in cold blood after being denied a passport that would have allowed him to serve the same cause as “Jihadi John.”

I do not like the fact that Canadians have joined the Coalition and that air combat has begun. Canada fought in both World I and World War II. However, during my lifetime, Canada’s military has usually avoided wars. Yet, Canadians fought in the Korean War (1950-1953) and in the Gulf War (1990-1991). Canada also played a limited role in Afghanistan (the 2000s), but it did not declare war on Iraq. (See Canada in the Korean War, Wikipedia.)

However, we have been peacekeepers and have brought humanitarian relief. We are now at war and it would be my wish that the Coalition be just that: a Coalition. If the Coalition is not successful in eradicating Isis and in bringing its assassins to justice, there could be retaliation. This is a danger the Coalition should avoid.

Yet the violence must end and Canada will be joining US President Obama whom most Canadians very much admire and respect. The House of Commons was divided, but President Obama can count on us.

—ooo—

Needless to say, we will have to review the manner in which children are brought up and educated. There must be an attempt to make their life more meaningful and they must be taught the Golden Rule.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/isis-dump-truck-may-have-been-target-of-first-canadian-air-strikes-in-iraq-1.2822495

I will not be writing about this conflict anymore because of its complexity. I am including a list of my posts on the Middle East.

My kindest regards to all of you.

[1] See also Roméo Dallaire: http://www.romeodallaire.com/index.php/rwanda-genocide/

[2] United Nations, International Law, Wikipedia.

“Quand les hommes vivront d’amour,” Raymond Lévesque

imagesWX5F23QD

The Umayyad mosaics of Hisham’s Palace closely followed classical traditions

© Micheline Walker
5 November 2014
WordPress
 
 
 
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Syria, cont’d

04 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in The Middle East, United States

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, al-Assad, chemical weapons, interview, Le Figaro, provocation, Rwandan genocide, Syria, The Middle East, the United Nations, war as the greater evil

Declaration_independence

The Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776, by John Trumbull, 1817 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
John Drumbull  (6 June 1756 – 10 November 1843)
 

::

When I posted my previous article on Syria, I was afraid.  I thought that my colleagues at WordPress would not look upon my post as a call for peace.  I was wrong.  Many of my WordPress colleagues also think the US should not enter into war.  Banishing the use of chemical weapons can be addressed without entering into a military conflict.

However, I then watched CNN and heard many individuals express the view that America should saddle up — knights in shining armour — and enter Syria as though it were America’s mission to save the World.  It is not America’s mission to save the world and I still feel the gassing to death of 1,429 Syrians by fellow Syrians could be provocation.

Provocation

Given the confidence the Syrians are expressing, I suspect they have powerful allies.  It is therefore possible that the intended “narrow” intervention of a coalition led by the United States would escalate into a war and that the United States would again be seen as the “ugly American” who meddles into the affairs of the Middle East.  Under Barack Obama’s Presidency, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won diplomatic victories that should not be jeopardized.

An Illegal Act of War

It is incumbent upon the World to make sure the “criminals” who gassed to death 1,429 innocent individuals are brought to justice.  “Punishing” criminals is legitimate.  Nobody wants a reenactment of the Rwandan genocide.  However, attacking a sovereign “nation” could be construed as an illegal act of war.

The International Community

Consequently, it remains my opinion and conviction, that the US should continue to leave the Middle East, where it has long been despised, and let the World deal with the criminal acts committed under al-Assad’s dictatorship.  The World has institutions, the UN and other agencies, whose duty it is to look after such matters.

I can understand that President Obama and his administration are motivated to intervene because 1,429 innocent individuals were gassed to death near Damascus.  But it could be that 1,429 innocent citizens were gassed to death so President Obama and his administration would be motivated to intervene?

All things considered and as horrible as this may sound, war is a greater evil than the despicable gassing to death of 1,429 individuals.  In the event of a war, there would soon be 14,429 victims, and then 144,299 victims.

Scene_at_the_Signing_of_the_Constitution_of_the_United_States

Howard Chandler Christy‘s Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, 17 September 1787 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Howard Chandler Christy (10 January 1873 – 3 March 1952)
 

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was interviewed by France’s Le Figaro. 

“President Assad: From my perspective, power lies in your ability to prevent wars not in igniting them.  Power comes from ones ability to stand up and acknowledge their mistakes; if Obama was strong, he would have stood up and said that there is no evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, he would have stood up and said that the right way forward is  to wait for the results of the UN investigations and work through the UN  Security Council. However, as I see it, he is weak because he succumbed to internal pressure from small groups and threatened military action.  As I said strong leaders are those who prevent wars not those who inflame them.
 
Malbrunot: What do you say to members of congress whose vote will determine whether or not there will be any military action?
 
President Assad:  Members of congress are entrusted to serve in the best interests of their country.  Before they vote, they need to weigh up their decision in the interests of their own country.  It is not in the interests of the US to perpetuate instability and extremism in the Middle East.  It is not in their interests to continue – what George Bush started – spreading wars in the world. 
 
If they think logically and in the interests of their country, they will not find any benefits to these wars.  However many of them they have not mastered the art of logic in their political decision-making.
 
Malbrunot: How will you respond to these strikes, should they happen?
 
President al-Assad: If we think of the Middle East as a barrel of explosives close to a fire that is coming ever closer, then it becomes clear that the issue is no longer contained to a Syrian response, but rather what will happen after the first strike. The architects of the war can define the first strike – in other words they can determine what they will do, but beyond that it is impossible for anyone to predict what will follow.  Once the barrel explodes, everyone loses control; nobody can determine the outcome, however what is certain is the spread of chaos, wars and extremism in all its forms everywhere.”
http://www.syriaonline.sy/?f=Details&catid=12&pageid=7073
 
 
 
140775904© Micheline Walker
4 September 2013
WordPress
 
 
 

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,507 other subscribers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Epiphany 2023
  • Pavarotti sings Schubert’s « Ave Maria »
  • Yves Montand chante “À Bicyclette”
  • Almost ready
  • Bicycles for Migrant Farm Workers
  • Tout Molière.net : parti …
  • Remembering Belaud
  • Monet’s Magpie
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws in Quebec, 2
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws

Archives

Calendar

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,475 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: