I am with you on that, CM. As a dumb-ass Canuck, one of the proudest moments for me was watching Chretien tell the
coalition of the willing to get stuffed.
I can't find the exact clip I have in-mind, so here is Chretien reflecting on the decision:
The thing about Chretien has always been that he's barely coherent in either official language, but he is a very, very smart guy.
CM, I see your points about Kerry. It is probably my problem; I have somehow accepted that the goalposts in the US have moved so drastically, and so quickly, which has left no viable "left" in the US, to the point where a Democrat hawk looks like someone who could win some sort of peace prize.
On the invasion of Iraq, which Bush Sr. wisely avoided, it was never about WMDs. The Bush administration had people within intelligence agencies actively vetting raw information so it would support the pre-conceived notion that Iraq needed to be invaded. Colin Powell, who I believe is a stand-up guy, actually presented evidence to the UN about how much and many Hussein's egregious WMDs were, and it was all based on utter bullshit. They didn't dupe a few Democrats, which in retrospect were very wrong, they duped an entire country.
I cannot say if either Kerry or McCain would have not gone into Iraq, because it's unknowable. I can
guess that they would have a greater appreciation of what they were asking of their armed forces. Maybe people akin to Rumsfeld and Cheney would have had their way, and maybe dumb-ass decisions like dismissing the entire Iraqi army would have still happened.
In other words, I still have no concrete conclusion to this.
and the media is supposed to hold the government accountable
I am sorry, but I can't agree with this, though I do agree with what media should be. Without arms-length public funding of media which is directed to hold government and opposition factually accountable, media is purely commercial. Their role is to make money by creating a vehicle to sell advertising.
There is a lot in that - transparent democracy which is for the people, and all those wonderful things. At this point, it doesn't exist.
A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.