14 Sep 2001 cmacd   » (Journeyer)

I am still in a daze concerning the events of this week.

I will say that I am relieved that Bush is conducting some study before he takes action. I did have nightmares of B-52s dropping the big one on random populations.

I was pleasantly surprised at the sheer number of folks that turned out on The Hill for the memorial service today. (See the CBC coverage)

Iain: Canada actually has set out in its constitution the goals of Peace, Order and Good Government. Sometimes abreviated as POGG. Our last crisis that was anywhere near as serious was back in October of 1970. We do tend to value keeping things on an even keel.

nmw: I am afraid that you are showing to someone outside the USA the exact attitude that makes some folks angry at americans...

The U.S. has done the following good deeds during the last 60 or so years:

Entered and won WWII

If you were to not study history from the Hollywood version, you would realize that the US was a late entrant, and while they certainly helped, they did not "win" the war. I think we can credit the Brits for that. (and being a Canadian, I can think of a lot of credit Canada could but normaly does not claim for the result.) The battle of Malta that my father in law fought in was a anglo-canadian co production from the outset for example.

Lifted Europe and Japan from the ashes of WWII's ruins

The marshall plan was brilliant, and the US has been a real friend of Japan, but I suspect that the europeans may wish to claim credit for some of their gains themselves...

I really don't want to rant about this, and the USA is our counties closest ally in good times and bad, but you really should hear how what you posted sounds to ears outside the "You Nice States". I am sorry if any Yankee takes this as a negative posting. Today the paper published a US flag that is curently displayed in the window of the spare bedroom, to go along with my Canadian flag on my front lawn which has been flying at half-staff since I phoned home to tell my wife about the news bulletin on tuesday morning.

sethcohn: I have been comparing the coverage from both BBC World and CNN and I will agree that the BBC is far more insightfull, even though the coverage was dependant on ABC for much of the footage. The difference is that the BBC knows that their viewers are all over the world and depend on the BBC to be a non-biased source of facts, while CNN probably is only really concerned with the American market. The Economist is also well known for good coverage of issues.

Anyway it has been a very hard week, and I sure hope that the dust clears and we can all get on with creating peace.

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