Harper's grandstanding in Iraq claims first Canadian casualty

With an election on the horizon, PM "Big Steve" Harper has been leaning on the after-burners full time to impress on the Canadian public that his government is the only government Canadians can count on to get tough on crime, tough on terror, etc.

That's why his government committed to spending at least 122 millions for the first six months of an open-ended campaign to help Hezbollah, Iran, and the Kurds battle Islamic State extremists in Iraq. While the behind-the-scenes machinations of who is fighting whom are a veritable dog's breakfast, the simple story coming out of the PMO is that we gotta do this for the sake of preserving "Canadian values."

While the Kurds may not share many of those cherished values, they apparently appreciate the Canadian training so much that they shot up a platoon of our trainers today, resulting in the death of Sgt. Andy Doiron and injuries to a number of other Canadians.

The PMO was quick to make political hay out of Doiron's tragic death, reminding Canadians that "our government" takes Canada's security seriously, thereby implying that a government led by Trudeau or Mulcair wouldn't. His statement is larded with the usual bromides about how we value our men and women in uniform, when the actual track record of this government has consistently proven the opposite.

Sgt. Doiron didn't sacrifice his life to preserve Canadian values; he sacrificed his life for the Prime Minister's re-election campaign.

Canadian taxpayer to fork over $122 millions for Harper's grandstanding on Islamic State

We're not sure who we're fighting over there in Iraq... ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic State? But apparently our participation is costing us $122 million for the first six months.

Or perhaps $166 millions according to a new estimate released today.

And since ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State has only expanded in those first six months, a re-up is a foregone conclusion. The smart money says this could go on for years, if not decades.

Meanwhile, I know at first hand that the local high school is holding fund-raisers to keep their breakfast program alive...

But we got hundreds of millions to stick it to "Islamic fundamentalists."

Frankly, I don't understand how fighting Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq is any of our concern. Is this really about "fighting terrorists?" If I'm not mistaken, our much ballyhooed "terror attacks" of recent memory were carried out by French-Canadian Roman Catholics.

They were allegedly "recent converts" to Islam, but that should be considered a red flag, not a green one. Having been married to a couple of Roman Catholics (not at the same time, mind you) I think abandoning that dodgy superstition in favour of a foreign superstition every bit as dodgy should be taken as a cry for help.

That's what frosts my ass about the way this government tosses millions of dollars into adventures that are, if we're lucky, irrelevant. If we're not lucky it'll give authentic jihadists a legitimate reason to treat us to some real terror.

Sadly, while we seem to have money to burn on flying counter-productive bombing runs in Iraq, we can't afford to properly care for mentally ill young men who want to lash out at the world by running over a soldier in uniform, we can't provide housing for the homeless, we can't come to equitable agreements with our native population, we cant rein in rogue corporations who are destroying jobs and befouling the environment; in short, when messed up young men are wildly waving red flags, we can't respond.

But we can afford $122 million dollars to bomb Iraq for six months. Billions more will be spent to see this mission through to its conclusion, and the only conceivable purpose is to make Harper look like a bold warrior king.

What a waste!