From Your Pocket to War: Canada's Burgeoning Military Complex

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Well hurrah! Canada is to, if Mr. Harper gets his way, dole out an approximated 15 billion dollars next week to "beef up" the country's military. Though the Canadian Forces has seen annual budget increases through three administrations over the last few years, it's still many tax dollars short of attaining its goals. What, harried tax-payer, are those goals? Well you may ask.

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From Your Pocket to War:
Canada's Burgeoning Military Complex

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
June 24, 2006


It costs money to kill people. Think of it: There are bullets and bombs, rifles and airplanes; soldiers, sailors, and spooks to be paid. Then, those good boys and girls, our good boys and girls, needing feeding, clothing, toilet papering, etc. But, then you have to get those masters of democracy to the killing fields; far-flung locales most of those picking up the tab have never heard of, and certainly couldn't afford to holiday in.

But there's more, much more to be paid to get a good killing spree off the ground. And, this week, Canada's new prime minister, Bush apparatchik, Stephen Harper promised to provide the moolah required to wipe out the Mullahs. Hee hee, it's off to glory we go.

Already in the hole for more than a reputed four billion supporting the occupation of Afghanistan, and military geniuses like Canada's Numero Uno at defence, Rick Hillier opining a decade, or more "in-country" commitment required to bring at last freedom and democracy to the too dumb to form a society on their own Afghanis, Stephen's 15 billion dollars would appear just a down payment on the full cost of this misguided adventure in Central Asia. But the costs are to be greater by magnitudes less easily measured than through pure accountancy.

Some of you older Canucks may recall travelling the world in your youth. You may remember encountering American backpackers in Europe, who would affix little Maple Leaf insignia to their gear in hopes of "passing" as Canadians. They would abandon their citizenship for safety, knowing "their" government's policies abroad were so repugnant to so many around the world, it better to play Peter and deny affiliation, three times before the cock crows. What little emblems will the young intrepid denizens of the Great White North eager to see the wider world affix their backpacks, as they must now because Stephen Harper, and his previously corrupted predecessors, acquiesced Canadian sovereignty, adopting whole the horrible precepts and repugnant realities of the foreign policy of the United States?

Don't Shoot! I'm Irish, eh?

Lucky charms will not save those daring a venture. You see, we're seen in the lands of those oppressed as a polyglot too: The West, a bunch of rich, white, Christian men; a maniacal uber mensch that would have the Prophet dragged through the dirt and the mud, His adherents put to sword and flame; man, woman, and child together smote, while not even the animals, the lands and waters spared the scorched earth crusaders. And who, looking at the annuls of atrocity these last terrible years has writ, could disagree?

Like they are presented to we, we too look to them as a polyglot singularity; as if there are no secular "Muslims;" as if there exist no Agnostics east of Constantinople. Here, we perceive they a homogenous blob, religious fanatics, unreasonably threatening we that would take their hand and lead them from their dismal darkness of ignorance to the shining New Jerusalem on the hill: The Free Market.

Hallelujah! Amen.

Well Stephen, more bullets and bombs, and the means of their deliverance will not accomplish your stated tenets. What "Canada" is promising is a mere reflection of the disaster, in all terms, of America. And you, gentle tax-payer can go quiet into your good night knowing you are contributing to the Great Project, promising to pay the piper for this abortion of humanity, guaranteed to continue for generations to come.

Before I vomit at the thought of what's become of us, a shout out to the CBC, and their conspirators in the corporate media, for all your diligent work assisting the mass murders abroad.

Didn't they hang 'Tokyo Rose?'

Sleep well fellow Canadians, knowing your labours are put to such good use.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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