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good to see a few more of those faces arriving at Canadian airports. But what do you tell any Canadians left behind in Iraq?
It is entirely likely that the envoy to Baghdad would fetch a few of the remaining four dozen Canadians there, but those hostages, while the guns of 400,000 allied troops are trained on Baghdad, are safe where they are. The same is not true for the people of Kuwait. The same was not true for murdered Kuwaitis, the butchered children, the slain babies.
Did you know that Iraqi soldiers point their rifles at Kuwaiti citizens, shoot them and then place lots on the number of final breaths their dying victims will take? Did you know that Iraqi soldiers have pulled the plugs on 60-70 Kuwaiti babies' incubators killing each and every one of those infants? Did you know that the brains of children are splattered across the entrances of their Kuwaiti homes by soldiers with assault rifles who have carried out merciless reprisals to effectively throttle Kuwaiti resistance?
Did Britain's Mr. Heath, Germany's Mr. Brandt, America's Mr. Jackson and others ignore the plight of Kuwait's families who watch their children and neighbours butchered in the streets in front of their homes, all for the sake of appearing as heroes to their own publics?
How righteous is the cause of seeking the release of Canadians from Iraq while the victimized people of Kuwait are mentally tortured beyond their worst nightmares? If it is correct to bargain with the devil himself for the release of only a handful of hostages, then it is also correct to heed the pleas of the exiled Kuwaiti leadership and rescue its people from cold-blooded tyranny.
It's hard to decide whether we are looking at opportunism on the part of Canada's three parliamentarians, or a genuine belief that the tradeoff is just and equitable. In either case, future historians — whether you care now to admit it or not — may say we are witnessing a display of selfishness like that seen in the early days of WW II when
Volume 4, Number 46 November 14, 1990
Comment:
SADDAM WINS ROUND ONE
Kuwait is gone. The country has been wiped from the face of the map. Saddam has placed 430,000 troops in what he now refers to as Iraq's 19th province, holds some 2,000 hostages at Iraqi military sites as human shields, refuses the righteous demands of neighbouring Arab states, and refuses to free Kuwait.
Since August 2 this wily coyote has manipulated the western world like putty in his fingers. Today a procession of `unofficially' sanctioned high-profile public figures makes its way to Baghdad to enter the exploitatious tournament sponsored by the "Butcher of Baghdad" who dangles his prized hostages for each notable who parades through his palace.
While in fact they may be justified in bartering for the release of a few hostages, in principle what Canadian Parliamentarians Svend Robinson, Lloyd Axworthy and Robert Corbett are doing is iffy at best. They concede that Saddam has the upper hand, toy with the hopes of families in Canada, and contribute to the slow usurping of western solidarity. On the other hand, it would be