Beware the warmongers

A goodly load of jingoistic claptrap infests my Globe and Mail this morning. Steven Chase gets the party started with a story about how some virtuous Canadian politicians are calling for a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics, because of China's campaign of genocide against the Uyghurs. We know that to be the case because both Mike Pompeo and Tony Blinken say so, and we need to stand with our allies.

Next up is a Reuters' story about a US Navy "freedom of navigation" mission through the Taiwan Strait. The Yanks are keen on keeping the sea lanes open, because China could shut them down anytime, thereby instantly destroying their own economy. The fact this makes no sense of any kind won't prevent Canada sending its own warship through the Strait in a show of solidarity with the warmongers in the Pentagon.

Then we've got Professor David Welch from the University of Waterloo opining on the importance of "standing with Taiwan" in the face of China's aggression. That there has been no Chinese aggression against its rogue province in seventy years is a moot point; we need to stand with our allies in furthering US foreign policy, and in the long run the goal of that policy is regime change in China.

The opinion page features Robyn Urback chiming in on the Uyghur genocide before Konrad Yakabuski sees us out with a timely reminder that China is not our only enemy; let's not forget the ever-present threat of Russian aggression. 

The war talk is abundant on our state propaganda broadcast network as well. In little over an hour this morning I was treated to a lengthy anti-Putin rant by Madeline Roache, a self-made Putin expert, and a further run-down of the China threat by Professor Stephen Nagy of Tokyo Christian University. That may sound impressive, but Tokyo Christian University (enrolment less than 200!) boasts it is the only Evangelical university in Japan. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a professor from a evangelical school probably brings a certain set of biases to his analysis of the Chinese Communist Party.

That Canada is a non-entity on the world stage goes without saying. That we are undergoing a sea-change from a uni-polar world dominated by the US, to something else, should also be self evident by now. Under the circumstances, a policy of calculated neutrality would seem to be more prudent than rashly throwing in our lot with American Exceptionalism. I leave the last words to USN Admiral Charles Richard, head of United States Strategic Command, who recently stated that nuclear war with China or Russia, or both, is "a real possibility."

That's the problem with supporting your allies. If your main allies are war-mongering genocidal imbeciles, how does "standing" with them benefit the Canadian people? We need to rethink our alliances. Canada would be well advised to ally with nations working against nuclear war rather than provoking one.