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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Thursday 2 October 2014

Politics in War

 
 
 
Read this after watching Warren Kinsella and Brian Lilley talk about Canada's involvement in The War.
 
It's funny; leadership, we're told, is about taking the lead.  Youth are encouraged to get out and hustle, to pitch hard, to take risks by taking on tasks above and beyond their pay-grade to show what they're capable of.
 
Yet that's not how the game's being played by the people with power, is it?  Risk has become something to be downloaded so as to avoid responsibility (which may be why there's so much emphasis on other people doing the heavy risk taking).
 
Is the government cooling it's heels, waiting to be asked by someone else to participate?  Who?  A council that they are (or aren't) a part of, the US?
 
Are the Opposition Parties cooling their heels, waiting for policy to comment on instead of crafting alternative plans to pitch? 
 
Where's the leadership?
 
Of course, this is about political positioning, not saving lives.  Saving lives, bringing peace and the like is all well and good, but you gotta be in power to do any of that, right?  So the power comes first.
 
At this very moment, while we fixate on the shenanigans of the Fords or the horrific details of the Magnotta trial, war is destroying lives.  Women and children are being raped and killed.  Generations are being scarred.  Recruits, mad at the West and unhappy at their prospects are flocking to ISIL because if the world's going to end, they want to be powerful when it does.
 
Politics is about success - you don't go into the line of fire without a decent prospect of a personal ROI.
 
War against folk like ISIL isn't about personal return; it's about righting wrongs.  It's a risky, messy business, but none the less necessary.  If you want to be taken seriously, you've gotta have skin in the game.  If you want the people to know you're on their side, you have to walk among them, bleed for them and to commit to being there for the long haul.
 
Leader's put themselves in harm's way so that others may be free.  That's always step one.

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