This is a very interesting article in today's National Post, entitled, "Sometimes, making peace means making war," by well-known Canadian author J.L. Granatstein. This is the first in a five-part series that will explore myths that Canadians have about The United States, and focuses on the general Candian-held belief that Americans are big bullies who use violent force and never achieve anything, while we go out and use hugs and kisses and blue berets to solve the rest of the world's problems. While I certainly don't claim to support American foreign policy, this article certainly helps to put a more historical perspective on relative success and failure in peacekeeping vs. peacemaking. Perhaps our world achievements aren't all we try to make them out to be.
On a side note, due to the minority government, a major foreign policy review which could have addressed these issues (and which would have led to a review of how our military is used as a foreign policy tool) turned into a small paper hardly worthy of mention.
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J.L. Granatstein is also the author of a book entitled "Who Killed the Canadian Military" which dissected the sorry state of the Canadian military, a state that few would disagree with.
However, this book was also roasted by critics as being overly hawkish and against the "peacekeeping" mantra that the Canadian military and politicians promote.
While he may have important and relevant things to say, he also quite clearly has an agenda.
And that is my 2 cents.
Keep up the good writing Matt.
Yeah I have seen that book and read part of it. The author is definitely not my favourite. However, it is definitely clear that he believes in this stance he has taken, and he supports it against the Canadian "peacekeeping mantra" in the linked article. It is precisely because his thoughts go against the common standard of Canadian conceptions (presented as MISconceptions) that I found the article of interest.
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