Let their be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
Let their be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be.
With God as our father brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony.

I opened The Star today and encountered an article about a young musical group called “Strings of Freedom” from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank having travelled to a seniors centre near Tel Aviv to play for the residents. The musicians didn’t know their audience were survivors of the holocaust, many of them didn’t know the holocaust had even taken place. The audience didn’t know their musicians were young Palestinians.

The chances for peace and friendship we can have when we don’t know who we’re talking to. The event was part of Good Deeds Day which is sponsored by one of the richest women in Israel. The reaction in Jenin has resulted in the orchastra being shut down with many claiming the young people were exploited for political gain. I guess it is all about perspective.

As I read the reports on this, the lyrics above came to mind. Many years ago, when my now adult niece was in grade 4 and I was Legion President I invited her class to sing that piece at our Remembrance Day service in the local park. To me, their young voices singing this piece represented all that was right about Remembrance Day. It is not a day to celebrate war but to honour the cost of piece. A day to remember the past and pray for peace in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

You know, I’ve watched this situation in the Gaza strip going on. I can be some what detached from it all as I don’t have any direct connection to either side of the conflict other than it being in the area of the Holy Land which is where the roots of my own faith are.

I don’t even begin to understand all that goes on there other than the emnity and hatred on both sides runs deep. I expect that just as there are those on both sides of the divide who believe the other side is absolutely the agressors there are those of goodwill who mere want to live their lives in peace.

The Palistinean group Hamas remains committed to the annihilation of Israel and ultimately the Jewish people. In many countries in the world, certainly in the west, Hamas is considered to be not a government but a terrorist group. For years they have used the Gaza strip to fire missles into Israel. They have also used Lebanon to do the same. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been watching this situation with Omar Khadr for some time now, not really sure where I land on what should happen with him. The more information that comes out about him, the more I find myself troubled on several levels with his case. If you don’t know who Omar Khadr is, he is a Canadian born Muslim captured in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 and held at Quantamano Bay. He is the only westerner still in captivity there and the youngest, being just 15 at the time he was captured. To read more detail about Khadr, have a look here.

My short opinion on him, is that he’s a Canadian citizen and a child at the time of his capture. He should have been brought home and should still be brought home. To steadfastly refuse to do so in the face of unchallenged evidence that he’s been subject to physical and mental abuse and the process by which he is about to be tried is being weighted more by politics than any attempt at justice is to deny a Canadian his birthright. Read the rest of this entry »

In a valiant effort to divert blame from himself or his cronies, Pakistan President Musharraf has come up with a theory for who to blame for the death of Benazir Bhutto…. it was her fault.

In an interview on the American TV show 60 Minutes Musharraf blamed Bhutto for her death because she choose to see and be seen amongst the people she was asking to support her run for Prime Minister.

The government has blamed a  warlord with ties to Al Qaeda for arranging her assassination. Many of Bhuttos supporters blame Musharraf and his officials for at minimum not providing sufficient security and at worse, actually conspiring to kill her.

BillW at Crooks and Liars reports on the interview with Sara Logan and provides links to either listen to or download the segment.

Having escaped injury or death in a suicide bombing attack in October on a parade celebrating her return to Pakistan from exile Benazir Bhutto, has been assassinated. Reports from Pakistan indicate that Bhutto was shot in the chest and neck as the entered a vehicle following a rally in Rawalpindi. The attacker then blew himself up killing up to 20 others. Bhutto died a short time later at a local hospital.

Twice Prime Minister of Pakistan, she was the first female elected to lead a post-colonial Muslim state. Both of her tenures were ended by the Pakistani President of the time on charges of corruption. In 1998 she went into exile in Dubai until her return to Pakistan in October. She was running in the Pakistani elections due to be held January 8th. Read the rest of this entry »

The British service people released from Iranian captivity on Wednesday have provided their version of events at a press conference yesterday. As was speculated on during their captivity, the men confirmed that they had been subjected to coercion which resulted in their apologies on Iranian TV for straying into Iranian waters which resulted in their capture.

The service people made a deliberate decision to surrender to a more heavily armed force which had them outnumbered. Their ship was not nearby at the time as they were operating in water too shallow for the larger ship to enter to render aid. The group had moments to make their decision, knew they were outnumbered and outgunned and were aware that an aggressive response on their part could well escalate tensions in the region worse than they already are.

Once in captivity they were subjected to psychological torture in order to gain their compliance, or appearance thereof. The little bit of communication they could do between themselves, they agreed that the objective was to get out of there as quickly and as safely as possible. So, the apologized if they tresspassed and allowed the Iranians to film their ‘confession’, not that there was much choice in the matter.

Publicly the military are standing behind their troops decisions. Some British civilians are second guessing their actions. Questions like ‘where is only giving name, rank and serial number to captors gone to’ have been asked. First of all, Britain and Iran are not at war. Secondly, were they at war, near as I know, Iran is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention and as such would not be likely to respect their captives right to confine their response to name, rank and serial number.

Even the war those young men and women are engaged in that puts them in that region is hardly conventional. I can hardly blame a young officer for recognizing he was outgunned and using discretion as the better part of valour rather than becoming the trigger for an explosion just waiting to go off in that region.

Meanwhile, the never diplomatic or tactful Americans can’t seem to hold back from trying to impose their worldview on the situation. Retired Army Colonel Jack Jacobs in his commentary on MSNBC ripped into the actions of the British servicemen which proved more how much of a dinosaur he is than made a point. He quotes the US Army Code of Conduct “I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.”

Umm… Jack, lad… that is the US Code, hate to remind you ol’ boy but it is a British matter not American. As much as he might think that the US is the centre of the universe, it isn’t. Expecting those service people to fight regardless of the force arrayed against them is absolute foolishness. Fifteen dead heroes are just as dead as 15 fools. The British are mature enough to know that sometimes you swallow your lumps and live to fight another day. Those young service people did the right thing.

The crisis involving the detention of 15 British service people has ended in a rather surprising move on the part of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Seemingly out of the blue, he announced that the service people would be released and ‘forgiven’ as an Easter gift to the people of Britain. His announcement followed the presentation of a medal to the coast guard commander who detained the Britons.

The fifteen are back home in Britain preparing to be reunited with their families. What is left is speculation over what prompted this surprising but happy ending to this crisis. By making the move he did Ahmadinejad created a situation that saved a lot of face all the way around, most importantly that neither side had to admit wrong. Sometimes that is not a bad thing.

It’s obvious that some diplomatic work was going on behind the scenes to have opened the curtain enough for the release. Some American officials had termed the British response to the crisis as ‘pathetic’, those pugnacious mouthpieces need to take a hard look at what quiet diplomacy can gain. This incident has ended in a manner that can leave the door open to other possibilities instead of posturing on both sides.

British performer, Terry Jones, has written a rather dark humour piece in the Guardian Unlimited contrasting the Iranian and American detention methods. There is often truth in humour.