Saturday, April 18, 2015

Guns Don't Solve Anything

      Our poor little deluded Prime Minister, Steven Harper, has just led us into some more war activity . Harper has volunteered 200 of our Service men and women to go in and train Ukrainian forces in a number of areas. Of course, there naturally will be people in the area who see this as a provocation , namely Putin, whether it is or not. My point is that Canada is taking sides  in a dispute which is way out of our control.

      Canada was in the Korean War. We were respected Peacekeepers from then until we became involved in the Afghan War. We have changed from being a peacekeeper and peace advocate to a very second rate aggressive force. We have a total force of about 70 000 men and women. Our equipment is limited and ancient. We should be the last country to enter a war. We could contribute much more to peace in other ways.

    We foolishly joined in the Afghan War. Afghanistan has a long history of disagreement between various tribes and factions. England colonized Afghanistan. The Afghanis didn't like the colonizers and finally England left , but not on their own terms. The balance between tribes and tribal areas was upset and the groups wanted to even scores and get back tribal territories they had. My history is a little foggy here but the Russians went in to separate the fighting factions. After ten years they left and again it was not on their own terms. The U.S. decided to take a round out of Afghanistan as they thought this would end or control terrorism. Now most of the forces in Afghanistan have left and again not on their own terms. 

    Now guess what? We have many more bad guys than we had before. We have really made the former bad guys angry and got many new people angry with us. The bad guys have become much worse. The bad guys have now spread over a much larger area. A lesson we haven't learned is that we can't go into an area and beat the crap out of some people and think that we solved anything. We've just made more people very angry. 

     Last year we sent 6 jets and 90 ground support for advising Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Isis is a very nasty group. Much of it has an Afghan origin. We went in for 6 months and now after 6 months we have expanded our mission. 

    Many of the disputes in the Middle East are a direct result of Imperialism. The colonisers left and left the area with major problems as they tried to establish borders which artificially put together very different groups. 

    So here we are 150 or so years later trying to bring peace to groups that we disrupted. These disputes have been going on and now with better weapons and people on both sides supplying weapons, disputes can get very large. Our own country is an example as two different groups were put together and now every once in a while we have serious talk of separation.

   From my point of view Canada would be much more effective if we stayed away from aggressive action and participated in promoting peace and providing assistance for displaced people. . There have got to be other solutions than the gun for settling disputes. There have to be better heads than we have now.

   Guns don't solve anything. People just keep getting more guns and find other people to shoot at who will shoot back.

    

    

34 comments:

  1. the latest factions seem much more hell-bent on attacking western cultures. the pot just keeps getting stirred, doesn't it?

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    1. The factions want the west to overreact so that they have a good excuse to produce mayhem.

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  2. Now that is a way cool rain barrel!
    Wars and rumors of wars, people have been fighting since forever. I say everyone should stay home and protect their own land and let the others fight it out.
    But I suppose Russia would take over half the world...between them and China they would rule the world.

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    1. The rain barrel is from a decorating contest. I wanted a flag for this post. It's the smaller areas that seem to be in such an uproar.

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  3. Give boys toys and they will play with them. Give men guns and they will shoot each other. It isn't the solution but there is far too much money invested in weapons for it to stop anytime soon.

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    1. You make a good point about the arms industry. It's huge.

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  4. The developements in the world worry me quite some time. I think when you are older as we, you recognizes some paterns from the past that can become dangerous. It is a restless time with lots of violences in the world going on.

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    1. Many people have moved to our countries and some are now influenced to do harm to us. That worries me.

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  5. You nailed it, Keith. I so agree. It's terrible, as they want foreigners out and the west keeps going in. Yes, some of their citizens want our help, but that money would be better spent on refugees and aid, not sending our people over there. This is the cycle: the US interferes, they get revenge. WHomever government put in power, turn the tide. Nicely summed up.

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    1. Europeans have been poking their noses into things for far too long.

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  6. Wonderful post. And I couldn't agree with you more! We could contribute our efforts toward humanitarian causes and the promotion of peace. Someone has to take on that job. Why not us?

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    1. Good question. We've been doing peacekeeping for a long time. Why not continue?

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  7. Nothing solved, just more willing to fight for a lost cause

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    1. The people in the middle east have lots to fight about. Unfortunately they fight each other and we have to poke our nose into it. It's like people who try to break up a fight and then find two people are beating up on them.

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  8. Hi Red, Wow, you are right on. To me, it seems like this thing over there ... well, it just keeps getting worse regardless of what we do. And it is slowly but surely creeping into our daily lives over here. I don't know the answer but guns won't solve it. Thanks for sharing this post.

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    1. I don't claim to know the answer but like you I don't think force will solve things.

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  9. If I were willing to write a political post, it would sound a whole lot like this one. We are kindred spirits, Red. :-)

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  10. While I do think Isis is something that needs to be put down, it's not our fight to make. The Americans on the one hand, for stirring the pot, and the reasonable Arab states on the other, have to do this.

    I've come to the conclusion that deep down, the Prime Minister is a gutless coward, and that's one of the reasons he behaves like this, picking fights, desperately trying to overcompensate for that fear. It also explains why he sent Kevin Vickers off to be the ambassador to Ireland instead of keeping him on as Sergeant of Arms in the House. Seeing actual courage shames him.

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    1. The fights he picks are where he can hide behind somebody else.

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  11. We have a whole political party down here that sees might makes right and will be happy to go to war on a sneeze! Some even advocate going to war with our own government if they are not happy.

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    1. The last point you make is true and it really bothers me that democracy in their minds is so insanely skewed.

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  12. I usually do not write neither comment on political posts but I just would like to agree that gun solves nothing. The world has suffered so much from previous wars, so much lives were wasted. We should value life more than ever and maintain PEACE.

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    1. You're right that so much is destroyed and wasted by war.

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  13. I know it's much more complicated but I've never understood why US/Canada or anyone else wants to help/change another country that doesn't want to change.

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    1. You're right on. Sometimes even if there are problems it's better for us to leave them alone and sort out their own disagreements.

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  14. You make some fine points and I agree with you completely.

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  15. While i agree with you, I don't think it's that simple. i wish it was.

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  16. I'm not Canadian, so I can't pretend to be knowledgeable about their foreign policy, but I do agree with what you are saying. I wish the US would butt out of everyone else's business, also.

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  17. Red your right. We do not have to go and fight.
    Harper is a coward. Canadians need to not take arms up. Let the others do it like William said.

    As far as Obama all I can say. My gosh. He is another coward and does not own up to what is going on .

    Six more Isis in America today killing.
    They shoot and they behead. America go get them.

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  18. Well written and well said Red, very, very thought-provoking for many people I would imagine. I have been missing and have a lot of post reading to catch up on! I trust you are well.

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  19. Hmmm.... I just wrote a comment and pressed the wrong button. I don't know if it went to you or to cyberspace.

    I just wanted you to know I agree with you 100%!

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  20. I could not agree with you more. I am going to lose my mind if Harper wins the election this fall!!!!

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