United States Embassy in Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
To the United States of America Ambassador to Canada;
Mr. Paul Cellucci;
Dear Mr. Ambassador
Please accept my humble apologies on behalf of a great number of Canadians. I believe a majority of English speaking Canadians and most assuredly a majority of Western Canadians are embarrassed and ashamed of the complete abdication of leadership coming from our federal government at this time. At this time of unprecedented struggle Canada should be standing firmly with our American brothers in fighting terrorism which threatens our freedom and liberty.
It saddens me and pains me that Canada will not be participating in advancing freedom and liberty to the people of Iraq. Our Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, likes to boldly state that Canada is a sovereign and independent nation and that its government is free to decide its policies and actions for Canada, and that Canada is free to chart a course different than the United States. This is true, but Mr. Chretien fails to realize that there are consequences for your decisions and actions. This time Mr Chretien was quite willing to abdicate his responsibilities as the leader of a free nation and place our policies and destination in the hands of other sovereign nations such as Cameroon, Guinea and Chile, all having votes on the security counsel of the U.N. and all having their own self interest to serve. This reveals the fact; Canada had no official policy on the Iraq situation. Whatever Cameroon and Guinea and 13 other countries decided on Iraq was what Canadas policy was going to be. With humor, you could stretch this bizarre situation to the point that Canada would have to watch CNN to find out what our official policy was regarding the Iraq situation. If the vote goes one way, we are with the coalition of the willing and if the vote goes another way we are not. This does not meet the test of good leadership and certainly not of being a statesman. This is cheap politics governed by polls and shows your moral values are loosely held and are up for bid.
I reject the principle that those who chose to stay out of this war hold the moral high ground over those who decided to confront terrorism and evil. Those nations that hold the veto on the security counsel and threatened to use it, chose crass, self- serving commercial interests over liberty and confronting terrorism. This is no moral high ground at all and certainly does not give you the right to throw stones at others who are willing to do so. It has been noted the billions of dollars that Iraq circulates through the French banks each year, the oil field development contracts that Russia holds with Iraq and how much greater trade France and Germany does with Iraq each year over Great Britain, in spite of the trade sanctions in place.
I totally disagree with my Prime Minister beliefs where he has stated on several occasions, that the wealthy west is to blame and have caused the tragic events on September 11, 2001. When his beliefs are this misdirected and wrong, it is understandable why he chose not to demonstrate leadership at this time. It boggles my mind that Mr. Chretien said a second resolution was not required, that Resolution 1441 was strong enough with serious consequences written in, to allow force to be used and then not to support America at this time. His actions define juvenile and sophomoric leadership.
The greatest gift God ever gave this nation of Canada after our natural resources is our American neighbors who are our friends, our ally and our defender. I believe it was President Abraham Lincoln who said, America is man's last best hope This is one Canadian who believes this yet, to the bottom of my heart. Once again I am sorry that the Canadian government decided not to stand with you in Iraq but please remember this, many Canadians are.
This letter is from a Canadian who is proud of our past, embarrassed at our present and fearful of the future with what passes for leadership in our country today.
Yours sincerely;
Lyle
P.S. Please feel free to forward my letter to anybody you so desire.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
To the United States of America Ambassador to Canada;
Mr. Paul Cellucci;
Dear Mr. Ambassador
Please accept my humble apologies on behalf of a great number of Canadians. I believe a majority of English speaking Canadians and most assuredly a majority of Western Canadians are embarrassed and ashamed of the complete abdication of leadership coming from our federal government at this time. At this time of unprecedented struggle Canada should be standing firmly with our American brothers in fighting terrorism which threatens our freedom and liberty.
It saddens me and pains me that Canada will not be participating in advancing freedom and liberty to the people of Iraq. Our Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, likes to boldly state that Canada is a sovereign and independent nation and that its government is free to decide its policies and actions for Canada, and that Canada is free to chart a course different than the United States. This is true, but Mr. Chretien fails to realize that there are consequences for your decisions and actions. This time Mr Chretien was quite willing to abdicate his responsibilities as the leader of a free nation and place our policies and destination in the hands of other sovereign nations such as Cameroon, Guinea and Chile, all having votes on the security counsel of the U.N. and all having their own self interest to serve. This reveals the fact; Canada had no official policy on the Iraq situation. Whatever Cameroon and Guinea and 13 other countries decided on Iraq was what Canadas policy was going to be. With humor, you could stretch this bizarre situation to the point that Canada would have to watch CNN to find out what our official policy was regarding the Iraq situation. If the vote goes one way, we are with the coalition of the willing and if the vote goes another way we are not. This does not meet the test of good leadership and certainly not of being a statesman. This is cheap politics governed by polls and shows your moral values are loosely held and are up for bid.
I reject the principle that those who chose to stay out of this war hold the moral high ground over those who decided to confront terrorism and evil. Those nations that hold the veto on the security counsel and threatened to use it, chose crass, self- serving commercial interests over liberty and confronting terrorism. This is no moral high ground at all and certainly does not give you the right to throw stones at others who are willing to do so. It has been noted the billions of dollars that Iraq circulates through the French banks each year, the oil field development contracts that Russia holds with Iraq and how much greater trade France and Germany does with Iraq each year over Great Britain, in spite of the trade sanctions in place.
I totally disagree with my Prime Minister beliefs where he has stated on several occasions, that the wealthy west is to blame and have caused the tragic events on September 11, 2001. When his beliefs are this misdirected and wrong, it is understandable why he chose not to demonstrate leadership at this time. It boggles my mind that Mr. Chretien said a second resolution was not required, that Resolution 1441 was strong enough with serious consequences written in, to allow force to be used and then not to support America at this time. His actions define juvenile and sophomoric leadership.
The greatest gift God ever gave this nation of Canada after our natural resources is our American neighbors who are our friends, our ally and our defender. I believe it was President Abraham Lincoln who said, America is man's last best hope This is one Canadian who believes this yet, to the bottom of my heart. Once again I am sorry that the Canadian government decided not to stand with you in Iraq but please remember this, many Canadians are.
This letter is from a Canadian who is proud of our past, embarrassed at our present and fearful of the future with what passes for leadership in our country today.
Yours sincerely;
Lyle
P.S. Please feel free to forward my letter to anybody you so desire.
Maybe this will help people not to clump everyone together.
