Wednesday 10 November 2010

Simon's Cat (a bit of relief from my rantings)

From time to time I feel it necessary to lighten the tone of my anti-Harperite & anti-Republican rantings to ward off terminal depression. This cartoon is for cat lovers and anyone else with a sense of humour. ;-)



And here's another one:

Tuesday 2 November 2010

The Sad Farce of the Omar Khadr Case

Everything about the Omar Khadr case stinks to high heaven.

First we have a boy abused by his family and turned into a child soldier (does anyone out there who ever had or knew a 13-15 year-old child think that children don't generally obey their parents?).

Secondly, would anyone, 15 or 30, not defend him/herself automatically when attacked without spending time debating whether self-defence was justified by international law (remember, the Americans were attacking, not defending). No, I'm not supporting terrorism, I'm talking about reflex action here.

Thirdly, as a child soldier Omar Khadr is exempt from prosecution. But, of course, the U.S. only acknowledges international law when it suits their purpose. American politicians would do well to remember that their empire is fading, just as the British Empire did last century. They may come to regret flouting international law sooner rather than later.

Fourth, as a 15-year old he was physically and mentally tortured by the CIA and the American military and abused by Canadian interrogators in Guantanamo and kept imprisoned illegally for 8 years, 1/3 of his life. Then he was subjected to a farce of a military trial whose only objective was to find him guilty for political reasons, and for political reasons only.

Lastly, we have the Harper neo-cons who aren't interested in the rights of Canadian citizens abroad if they're not white anglo-saxon protestants (remember, they chartered a private jet to get a white woman out of a Mexican jail, but let a number of non-white Canadians rot abroad for years until the media were able to publicize the cases). Human rights is not a concept to be associated with the current Conservative Party.

While it is terribly sad that anyone had to die during the military engagement that Omar Khadr became involved in, that's not the point. What is at stake here are a number of things: Is military justice, justice? Clearly not! Does the U.S. adhere to international law? Clearly not! Can the Harper Conservatives be trusted to protect the rights of Canadians abroad? Clearly not!

So we can only hope that, when Omar Khadr is finally set free, his mind has not been irreversibly damaged by what his family and society have done to him, and that he can be rehabilitated and live a more or less normal life.