Hey Remember This?

No debate, says MacKay, generals will decide how long troops in Afghanistan
Published: Monday, March 06, 2006

The length of Canada's military commitment in Afghanistan is an "open question" to be determined in large part by the generals, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Monday.

Amid sustained calls for a full parliamentary debate - and at least one for Canada to quit the southwest Asian country altogether - MacKay said now is the time for "perseverance and resolve" rather than a public review of the deployment.

He was responding to comments by Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, who said last week the dangerous mission will require troops for at least a decade and that Canada is in for the long haul.

MacKay is adamant a public debate of the mission's merits would undermine Canadian soldiers.

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Afghanistan

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Love and the Whole World Loves With You

My goodness stick an eligible bachelor and bachelorette together and everyone speculates about their relationship.

Media atwitter over Condi and Peter
Rice keeps her cool as papers play matchmaker
Gossips match Rice with Canadian MP
When Condi flies north, diplomatic gossips feel the earth move
Rice warms to 'cool, Atlantic breezes'
`This has been a lovely trip, Peter'

And thats just the MSM lets not forget all us bloggers...

Related posts to: "mackay-condi connection.

Of course I am guilty too.

And lo and behold if this humble blog is not cited in the NYTimes article, since I post to Now Public and it was my post that is quoted below

If you believe the blogs, Mr. MacKay has been sweet on Ms. Rice since their first meeting in Washington last year. “Peter McKay has a crush... ” said a headline on the Web site NowPublic, atop a giant photo of Ms. Rice, “...on Condoleezza Rice.” The subhead continued: “Well, they are both single after all.’’
Dance of Diplomacy Is Grist for the Gossip Mill

Now of course if Condi had visited with this guy or this guy none of this would be happening.

And remember the rest of the song....laugh and the world laughs with you.

And we are all enjoying the laugh.





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McKay's Cougars

Peter Mckay has a thing for older women.And not just Condi.

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Peter McKay



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Liberal Product Placement

Found at Liberal.ca this bio pic of Hedy Fry. Whats that in her hand. Lookee Hedy is doing product placement. Signs of the desperation of a poorly funded campaign.















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Liberal Leadership Race



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Gun Control

So much for the Harpocrites plan to get rid of the gun registry.
Sometimes events just screw up all the best laid plans and priorties.

Gunman confirmed dead after Montreal rampage

A gunman who opened fire in a downtown Montreal college Wednesday afternoon is dead "after police intervention," police confirmed at a news conference.

The irony is that the Federal Gun Registry came into being because of the last massacre in Montreal in 1989.

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Alberta Lowers Voting Age

They're off! Fight begins to replace Ralph
Anyone 16 years of age and older who purchases a $5 membership in the party is entitled to vote for their choice of leader at polling booths which will be set up in all 83 constituencies on a yet-to-be announced date, likely at the end of November.

Ironic eh. Since the next Leader of the Party will become the Leader of the One Party State in Alberta effectively giving 16 year olds the vote.

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Alberta




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If The Shoe Fits

Jim Dinning has fired back at rivals who claim he's backed by Ralph Klein's "Calgary mafia" who will continue the status quo of government in Alberta. He launched his counter-attack yesterday with a vow to introduce tough new rules to ensure Tory governments are ethical and democratic. "There's a perception that decisions get made behind closed doors by the same people with the same influencers sitting by their sides," he told more than 100 Tory party members at a Royal Glenora Club luncheon. "I've heard it in spades and I've heard it directed at my own campaign."

Because it's true.

Love that eh after 35 years in power now Jim Dinning the man who wants to be Alberta's CEO will make sure that the Tory governments are ethical and democratic. So for 35 years they haven't been?

You bet thats why we have a deficit in Alberta a democratic deficit. And being the Party of Calgary's fair haired boy it ain't going to change under Dinning. Cause who was he talking to? Tories. Where? The expensive, elitist, exclusive Royal Glenora Club.

And speaking of making promises after the horse has left the barn there is Leadership rival Lyle Oberg who when he was Minister of Infrastructure could have done all this over the past three years. More money for schools and recreation centres for Alberta green spaces are on the agenda for leadership contender Lyle Oberg if he becomes premier.

But then again the Tories didn't have a plan.


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Alberta




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Lies the White House Tells

Afghan war will be won, Rice says

If wishes were horses beggars would ride as my mother says.

The reality is that Afghanistan is NATO's quagmire with no end in sight. No plausible victory except in the teeny tiny minds of right wing warmongers.

Many Nato countries have been directly involved in the US-led war on terror for the past five years. Fatigue is setting in. Forces are overstretched. The conflict shows no signs of ending any time soon. There is a growing perception among the public in Europe that the Bush Administration has mishandled the conduct of the conflict and that Iraq, and now possibly Afghanistan, may defeat the cream of the Western military. Those fears are reflected in the conduct of the war in southern Afghanistan, which was meant to be a Nato peacekeeping mission but instead has turned into a deadly counter-insurgency war. But the crisis does not bode well for future operations. By most accounts the war in Afghanistan is likely to continue for years to come.

NATO is now uping the amount of troops it needs...from 1000 to 2000 now to 2500...this despite the increased Canadian forces that have been sent there.

A NATO military chief asked yesterday for another 2,500 troops to be sent to southern Afghanistan to reinforce the Canadian and British battlegroups that have been under fierce attack by the Taleban for the past two months.

NATO officials -- and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor -- are calling for more troops and equipment to bolster the forces already in Afghanistan. Canada is now sending as many as 20 Leopard tanks and 300 additional personnel to Kandahar to provide additional protection for its troops.

The NATO meeting today got no new committments for troops.

NATO failed Wednesday to win new troop commitments urgently needed for its Afghanistan campaign, but the alliance said a 10-day offensive to dislodge Taliban fighters from their southern strongholds was achieving its goals despite the shortage of troops."No formal offers were made at the table," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said after an emergency gathering aimed at finding contributions for an expanded force.

The reluctance of Nato members to meet their commitments is partly due to the demands made on major nations for international operations elsewhere and wariness about getting sucked in to an open-ended conflict.

And the humanitarian situation in the failed state of Afghanistan only gets worse....

While international focus concentrates on the south of Afghanistan, a report released today indicates that millions of Afghans in the north and west of the country face starvation after drought destroyed much of the harvest. Christian Aid, which issued the report, will call today on the British government and international donors to give money to the country’s emergency drought appeal, which requires £41 million.

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Wedding Bells?

Can wedding bells be far behind? I mean she has met his family all that is wanting is for the date to be set. A strong signal has been sent that the cougar has got her boy.


Rice, 51, remarked "And so, Peter, thank you very much also for letting me share some time with your family."

During a spring visit with Rice in Washington, MacKay, who turns 41 two weeks from today, had gushed that the two shared a "chemistry" and conceded he had always been a "fan."

But it was obvious he was smitten with one of the world's most powerful women as they exchanged a handshake and double-cheek kiss. The feeling appeared mutual.

Rice, who has never married, repeatedly called MacKay by his first name and seemed in no rush to finish up her morning agenda.

"This has been a lovely trip, Peter," she told him.

U.S. State Department officials played up the amount of time MacKay spent with Rice, saying few get so much attention."You don't get four hours of the secretary of state's time even if you're the Queen of England," said one American official."It's quite a strong signal."

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Peter McKay



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Third Way Camp Grows

War or appeasement is the rhetoric on the right. But there is a third way, as NATO members are showing by their reluctance to pony up in Afghanistan. They are voting with their feet. Cold feet indeed, over Bush/Blair/Harper/Howards hot wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

What is the third way? NATO defines a new mission. One that is about diplomacy and development, which are the real keys to security. And self reliance. Actual training of security forces that are indidgenous to the conflict regions. Hey I am not saying this a British Lord is..... A Conservative British Lord.

That third way is what Jack, Alexa and the NDP are advocating, ironic eh.


Bush creating a more dangerous world

It may now be time to start pulling together a new partnership of like-minded nations to whom an America that has patently lost its way might at last listen. Nations such as India, Japan, Australia, Canada, and some from "New Europe," such as Poland, the Czech Republic and the lively Baltic three, come to mind.

There are undoubtedly plenty of countries that are by no means anti-American but are prepared to speak with candor and force to the present administration in Washington, to urge a change of strategy and direction -- not to appease terror and extremism but to encourage skilled and firm diplomatic engagement with every state, including Syria and Iran, which in the end are just as much threatened by nonstate terror and anarchy as anybody else.

This would be a big step out of the present morass. But will it be taken? Both Blair and Bush are irredeemably committed to the existing path, with its immensely damaging consequences for the interests of both the U.S. and its chief allies. A fresh start of this kind is probably not on the cards until both these figures leave the stage.

Only then will there be a chance to bring to an end this dismal period of folly since that dreadful morning that changed the world five years ago.

David Howell is a former British Cabinet minister and former chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He is now a member of the House of Lords

Also See:

Conservative Leader Blasts Bush

Afghanistan

Iraq





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