A situation of our own making
I love Paris and am as distressed as anyone over the recent terrorist attacks. But I am tired of the proclamations by western leaders like Obama’s: “This is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.” Comments like this are intended to portray the West as innocent victims of people determined to destroy honourable values. In truth, western nations have been the perpetrators of state-sponsored terror that has been destroying country after country and the lives of millions of people.
In 1999, I witnessed firsthand the anguish, death and squalor brought on by the 1991 Gulf War and years of crushing sanctions that killed more than 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of five. In my diary I prophetically wrote: “What kind of future relationship will we have with an entire generation of Iraqis who have suffered such brutality at our hand? Iraq is not a nation of terrorists but through our actions, we have planted the seeds of extremism and hatred that could make it such in the future. Terrorism is not about unfounded hatred of freedom and democracy or religious extremism, it is about repression and exploitation of the powerless by the powerful. It is about pain and anguish on a scale rarely, if ever, seen by most of us.”
France has already responded to last Friday’s terror attacks with a retaliatory reign of terror that will only result in a further escalation of the violence. It is time for western leaders to admit that their policies are bankrupt and have been for decades. You cannot brutalize people and then expect them to engage with you as global partners. I am no fan of Putin, but a recent comment to the US aptly summed it up: “How can you even now fail to understand what a mess you have made?
–Jillian Skeet
We already have drug stores
They were saying on the news, liquor stores should be selling pot. They have Food Safe, blah blah blah. The only people I think should be dispensing are the bloody pharmacists. They have the higher degree, have the right equipment to weigh-out everything from tinctures to pot. Also, I trust my local neighbourhood pharmacist more than some idiot in a tweed jacket and jeans packing boxes all day! Yes, I would like to be Served Right!
–Madame Yes
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