posted by OwenF at 9/19/2001 10:33:00 PM

I've never before taken it upon myself to write you, having been, for the most part, happy with the country's progress under your rule. Recent developments in the United States, however, have prompted these words of advice.

The question we now face, with regards to the terror in the United States, is "What should Canada do?" Your expressed public sentiments seem to be in favour of the idea of Canada assisting in an American-led strike on the people of Afghanistan, using cold-war era NATO/NORAD commitments as the justification. This disregards the fact that such treaties were designed as a defensive pact against the threat of a large nukes-and-land-forces invasion by another world superpower, not isolated terror attacks by a bunch of dissidents based out of a country where 20% of the population will die of hunger in the coming years regardless of our interference, and no army capable of offensive action. Rather than supporting the US in this ill-conceived revenge attack, Canada ought to maintain its role as an international peacekeeper by offering to receive bin Laden (who, remember, maintains his innocence) from the Afghan government and transporting him the the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague for a fair trial, something he won't get facing down the barrel of an American gun. If we truly believe in peace and justice, we should say NO to US aggression and disregard of the international court's jurisdiction and bring bin Laden to true justice, not the kind meted out by an angered mob. That said, not only would such an action allow us to retain the moral high ground in what could well become a bleak period of history, but it could also deter other terror groups from striking us here at home, something that seems almost inevitable should we blindly follow the American lead.

Would you rather be remembered as the moral leader who walks Canada and the world down the path of righteousness in the face of such calamity, or just another puppet in the game of American imperialism?

Yours, with all due respect for the immense pressure you must be under to capitulate to every American desire, no matter how absurd or morally reprehensible,

Owen Ferguson, Toronto
posted by OwenF at 9/19/2001 05:05:00 PM

"It is so short and jumbled and jangled... because there is nothing
intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead,
to never say anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very
quite after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do
the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like 'Poo-tee-
weet?'"

-Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5

posted by OwenF at 9/18/2001 02:38:00 PM