Read the original letter to The United States Ambassador
Paul Cellucci by Silver Donald Cameron here!
April 11, 2003
Mr. Cameron is wrong on many points.
(prefaced by the fact that I'm an "Honourary Canadian" who's
great-grandfather is from Forrest Hills, ONT)
With all due respect to all opinions, (this US citizen, for one, certainly
doesn't begrudge Canada for not participating, and I won't even criticize
France too much because frankly we wouldn't have shaken off the Brits
without them) Mr. Silver Donald Cameron missed what his own writing states:
that the nation of the USA never invaded the nation of Canada.
In 1690 we were colonies of England, and Canada was controlled by France.
Any military action at that time was clearly the result of ongoing conflict
between those two nations. During the American Revolution and the War
of 1812, the ports our opressor and enemy, England, maintained to our
north--not the (non-existant at that time) nation of Canada--were attacked.
During the US Civil War, the threat of invasion to the north arose largely
from the fact that England, which at that time still maintained holdings
to our north (Canada), appeared to support our enemy, the breakaway nation
of the Confederate States of America. (If that threat had never arisen,
would there be a nation of Canada?) If one were to take Mr. Cameron's
line of logic, then Canada should be in the top 3 nations of concern for
invasion of the USA; France invaded us during the 1750's, England was
the occupying force and a later invader, and it was a goup of "Canadians"
(from Nova Scotia, I believe) who sacked and burned Washington DC during
the War of 1812.
Additionally, harsh and inappropriate words have come from politicians
on both sides of the border; none should be condoned.
I do not like war. I do not "support" war. But for anyone who
might think that it was inappropriate for military action to be taken
against the regime of Saddam Hussein, I offer this essay, which settled
in my mind that it was necessary. It was written for the March 11, 2003
edition of the Los Angeles Times by a man I once met and interviewed;,
a man who is, and has been for decades, perhaps the world's most important
peace activist, Elie Wiesel. I believe that if Mr. Cameron had read this,
he'd see a parallel with Canada's earlier entry into WWII.
Please search: "Peace Isn't Possible in Evil's Face: Rational people
must intervene against the likes of Hussein. By Elie Wiesel (Elie Wiesel,
the Nobel Peace laureate, is a Holocaust survivor and author of 40 books.)
Jim Finkler
Hughesville, Pennsylvania, USA
[Editor’s Note: Since we do not have the url link for Mr. Wiesel’s
letter, we cannot post it on the site, but we thank Mr. Finkler for his
thoughtful and considered response to Silver Donald Cameron’s letter
to Paul Cellucci, US Ambassador to Canada.]
Read the original letter to The United States Ambassador Paul Cellucci
by Silver Donald Cameron here!
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