Friday, March 21, 2003

What are the French Motives? When I read history at Oxford many years ago - I was instructed that Foreign Policy should be driven not by emotion, not by friendship, not by alliance but by interest. No country undertands this better than France. So what then is their interest beyond being bloody minded which is not an interest? Here is an "interesting" article about what their interest might be. God help them if it is true. 9:10:25 PM    comment []

Shock and Awe - the Original Paper - Sun Tzu and John Boyd We have all been Shock and Awed on CNN - Did you know that there is a comprehensive paper on the topic. Here it is. I was watching PBS tonight - a refreshing break from CNN and I was struck by a comment. "How political the war is" It is all about overwhelming the mind. This is the philosophy of . Sun Tzu, the author of the Art of War. Clausewitz tells us that we have to destroy the enemy's army and that war is the extension of politics. Sun Tzu tells us that the real art of war is in the mind and that you cannot make a distinbction between war and politics.. His main objective - You have to destroy your enemy's ability to think. "One who is skilled in warfare principles subdues the enemy without doing battle, takes the enemy's walled city without attacking, and overthrows the enemy quickly without protracted warfare. His aim must be to take All-Under-Heaven intact. Therefore, weapons will not be blunted, and gains will be intact." This then became the central position of John Boyd (OODA loops) who was an important adviser to Dick Cheney in 1991. Boyd is the father of the modern art of war and a great disciple of Sun Tzu. I am amazed at the influence of Boyd - the greatest thinker on war since Sun Tzu and his influence on this government. 8:38:12 PM    comment []

The French - Insults - Diplomacy - My Mother Should work at the UN I had lunch with my aged Mum today and we laughed as we recalled our pinnacle diplomacy family moment. In France insult is actionable. This is apparently to avoid duelling. So if I call you a name in public in France you can sue me. Roll back the clock to  the early 1970's. My Dad was regaling the family at dinner of the events of the day in Paris where he had been at a board meeting. The Rothschild director, fed up with Dad's man in France, a Philippe DeCoursay, shouted at him "DeCoursay - you are the biggest cunt in France!" In French of course but Dad was telling us this in English. My little sister Cindy sat quietly as he told the story. She might have been 5 or 6. Maybe a year later, Bertrand DeCoursay, Philippe's son, was staying with us in London. He had fallen in love with my other sister Diana, about 12 at the time. He had become a real pest mooning about all the time. We are at lunch. My mother at the head of the table. He is gazing with adoration at Diana as only a lovesick teenage boy can when, suddenly in defense of her older sister, Cindy pipes up with "DeCoursay - you are the biggest cunt in France!" A horrified silence followed by an idiotic laugh from my mother who then pulled out her diplomatic tour de force. "Oh Bertrand" she quipped "in England "Cunt" is a term of endearment - My children call me that all the time!" Of that she could have been working at the Security Council   2:33:09 PM    comment []

Give Peace a Chance? I can't help but look below the surface on any topic. Maybe part of the Peace Movement's position is that they believe that there cannot be any good that comes from any war. The US civil war was an exceptionally brutal conflict with 600,000 dead and much of the nation despoiled. But slavery did end as a result. How would slavery have ended and when without the war? The First World War killed millions. But it caused the end of aristocratic government and the emancipation of women. How would aristocratic government have ended otherwise? What would the role of women have been without the war? The Second World War gave much but not all of Europe back its freedom. The Cold war gave back freedom to the rest. Not small gains. I am not advocating war. I am saying that there are good things that come from it and as such war cannot be dismissed out of hand at the outset. No one at Bull Run thought that the fight was over slavery. No one at Mons in 1915 thought that women would enter society and that Imperial government would fall. No one in Britain in 1940 thought that they would rise up to defeat Hitler. Certainly no one in the US did either other than perhaps Roosevelt. The real meaning of the Iraq conflict which surely began in 1918 when the Turks were expelled is not clear to us yet. Might war be to humans what a forest fire is to the forest - a cleansing?  It is ironic that policy about forest fires has changed. Now we let them go. To hold them back is to risk a greater conflagration and to set back the natural life cycle of the ecosystem. 11:22:32 AM    comment []

The "Peace Movement" Listening to the radio this moring, a "Peace leader" was shouting to an approving crowd that America was going to drop more bombs than on Hiroshima (technically true) and that they were going to drop them mainly on civilians and on hospitals and schools in particular. Cheers were heard in background. What is going on? I am not sitting in on the war plans but even I know that this is nuts. The last thing that the Americans will do is to deliberately target the civilian population. It is not that they are "nice" it is that such a strategy would be so counter productive. What is going on with these "peace" folks?   11:11:17 AM    comment []

Ashamed to be a Canadian When you stand on the foundation of principle you can disagree with another but you have a chance of holding their respect. Tony Blair has all along told President Bush that he did not have the full support of the British Nation and that it was important to work as hard as possible to provide  the legality of the UN sanction to help him politically at home. But all along Blair has seen that acting in Iraq is the right thing to do. When it became clear that France was holding the UN to ransom, Blair acted even though he knows that he has not the full support of his country. He even has the grace to acknowledge that many do not share his views. He has the respect of many because he has risked his own political life and reputation on his principles. Even Robin Cook can be gracious in resigning because he too acts from principles. Why am I ashamed to be Canadian? Because.we have hidden behind a smokescreen of the UN as our excuse for opting out of any meaningful role. In effect we have told our defender, our greatest trading partner and our neighbour that we care so little for them that we can use the excuse of the French veto as the reason why we cannot help. I am not saying that Canada shod help I am saying that we have taken a craven option. A position of principle might have looked more like this. "The Canadian public will not back a direct participation in a war. It is not part of our culture. So be assured I cannot help you directly unless the UN support the action and you and I know that that will not happen with France. So this is where we are. How can we help you now? Can we work on the French? Can we set up a post conflict support group? Can we lead the peacekeeping mission that will follow? Can we take the pressure off in other areas such as Bosnia and Afghanistan?" Such a position is real and it stands for something The outcome of hiding behind the UN is that Canada has squandered its influence in the world bought by the blood of the dead of two world wars and by the skill of Mike Pearson as a great diplomat at another time of diplomatic conflict when France and Britain were being opposed by the US. How sad and how pointless.We will pay dearly for this 11:04:18 AM    comment []

Cowboy? Richard Gayle has a moving tribute to a great Cowboy Film - The Searchers. There is a lot of talk about being a Cowboy right now. Richard's purpose is to remind us that in many cases to be a "Cowboy" is a term of approval. As a boy growing up in the 1950's I was immersed in the mythology of self reliance, brotherhood and adventure. Was not the myth all about there being an other life than the urban conformity that most of us live?  Today in these PC times we see the Myth differently. Now we see the West as being about exploitation, of a lopsided view of the sexes - could Wayne get away with spanking Maureen O"Hara today. The Duke of course plays many noble cowboys in his time. Here is a link that describes all his films. I think that I am going to rent some this weekend. On a sad note - I was talking about the Duke some time back in front of my 20 something son James who asked me "Who is John Wayne" ooooh! 8:25:40 AM    comment []