military

Thursday October 10, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 10, 2019

Turkey Begins Offensive in Syria After U.S. Stands Aside

Turkey has begun its military offensive into northeastern Syria to force back Kurdish militants controlling the border area, days after President Donald Trump said the U.S. wouldn’t stand in the way.

May 3, 2017

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the operation, code-named Spring of Peace, on Twitter and said it would also target Islamic State. Russia, Iran and a top EU official urged Turkey to act with restraint amid concerns that renewed chaos in Syria would lead to a jihadist resurgence and push the Kurds, America’s allies in the fight against IS, into the arms of President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey has battled Kurdish separatists for years and had repeatedly warned it would not allow the creation of a Kurdish proto-state on its immediate border. Once it seizes the area, Turkey plans to resettle 2 million Syrian refugees, most of them Arabs, in the border zone, further complicating a combustible situation.

October 31, 2018

A small forward group of Turkish forces first entered Syria early Wednesday at two points close to the Syrian towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, according to a Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Turkish planes and shells pounded the towns as the incursion began. Residents fled though Kurdish forces had vacated positions before the attack, which is expected to involve tens of thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers from NATO’s second-largest army.

Turkey’s advance follows a dramatic reversal of U.S. policy. Trump told Erdogan in a phone call on Sunday that dozens of American troops who’d been working closely with Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamic State would pull back, effectively clearing the way for a Turkish incursion.

April 13, 2018

The White House statement appeared to surprise allies at home and abroad. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said they would defend their “own people,” potentially relegating the battle against Islamic State.

The Kurdish YPG militia that forms the backbone of the SDF has been one of America’s closest partners in the fight against Islamic State and is holding thousands of jihadist fighters and their families in camps and detention centers in northeastern Syria.

October 6, 2016

While Trump said Turkey would become responsible for the detainees, who include foreign fighters from Europe, it was not clear if there was a mechanism in place to transfer them to Turkish custody. Trump was criticized at home for a decision that could see Islamic State fighters escape or regroup.

A number of Trump allies, including Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, said the move was “a shot in the arm for the bad guys.” Analysts said a U.S. pullback could ultimately play into the hands of Russia, whose military intervention helped turn the tide of the Syrian civil war in favor of Assad. As the Turkish offensive got underway, the Associated Press reported that the YPG had asked Russia to mediate talks between them and the Assad government. (Source: Bloomberg) 

 

Thursday April 11, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 11, 2019

Ontario must take steps to hit vaccination targets and debunk measles myths

We’re losing the fight against measles. In this day and age, that’s an amazing statement. Three years ago we talked about them being almost eradicated. Now we’re losing the battle.

April 11, 2019

This week Ottawa reported measles cases. There have been outbreaks in British Columbia, in several U.S. states and in Europe. In New York City, a health emergency has been declared. 

And the worst part is that we know exactly why. A relatively small group of so-called anti-vaxxers is making effective use of — what else — social media to spread misinformation, which is leading to more and more parents not getting their kids vaccinated, and to more adults choosing not to be revaccinated.

A recent report from the Toronto Star shows that nearly 30 per cent of seven-year-old students in the Greater Toronto Area aren’t getting their shots. A vaccination rate of 90 to 95 per cent is needed to afford herd immunity, which is required to prevent outbreaks. Ontario is very far from that target. 

December 22, 2016

Actions are being taken. The Ontario Medical Association has launched a public awareness campaign, using traditional and non-traditional media, specifically taking at aim of some of the most common myths about vaccines. 

Myths that suggest measles and similar diseases aren’t really that dangerous. The fact is that complications happen in about 10 per cent of cases. For every 1,000 cases, one or two victims will die. Then there’s the widely-debunked claim that the measles vaccine causes autism. It doesn’t. There is no scientific evidence to support that claim. Large studies around the world have shown there is no link, and yet the life-threatening myth survives.

April 29, 2016

Or this: The idea that nosodes are a substitute for vaccination. Nosodes, also called homeopathic vaccines, are not a substitute for real vaccines. There is no scientific evidence to show they prevent infectious diseases. Nosodes are made from bacteria, viruses, tissue or other material from someone with a particular disease. They are so diluted there are no active ingredients left by the time they are administered.

Or this one: Breastfeeding protects babies from infection. While it offers some protection against certain types of infections, the protection is incomplete. Breastfeeding is not a substitute for vaccination.

February 6, 2015

And finally, this: We shouldn’t put foreign substances like vaccines into our bodies. It’s hard to believe anyone would fall for this, but they do. The germs that cause communicable diseases like measles are natural, but that doesn’t make them good. Plants and berries are natural things, but they yield some of the most poisonous substances. Vaccines, on the other hand, are made from natural sources, some from safely-altered germs. They stimulate our immune system in the same way the disease would, but without making us sick.

At this point, all the good work being done to educate the public isn’t stopping the new spread of measles. It may be time for tougher medicine.

April 30, 2009

There are two legal exemptions for not vaccinating kids. One is a medical exemption, which obviously must remain available. Another is non-medical exemptions, where parents must sign an affidavit saying vaccines conflict with their “sincerely held convictions.”

U.S. states like California, Mississippi and West Virginia have ended non-medical exemptions. And their vaccination rates have dramatically increased. Perhaps it’s time Ontario and other Canadian provinces did the same thing. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

Measles, disease, virus, vaccination, herd, immunization, vaccine, military

Friday April 5, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 5, 2019

The world still needs NATO after 70 years

The 70th birthday of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this week deserved far more attention and celebration than it received.

November 23, 2002

There were no parades, no fireworks, no self-congratulatory gatherings of presidents and prime ministers clinking champagne flutes to recognize an alliance that has done so much for global peace and security.

Instead, and in marked contrast to the three-day extravaganza that saluted NATO’s accomplishments on its 50th anniversary in 1999, there was only a low-key ministerial meeting Thursday for the organization’s members in Washington, D.C.

This was likely because an ambitious, A-list gathering of NATO-nation leaders would have had to include the volatile, NATO-bashing American President Donald Trump. Having no party was preferable to having one he’d ruin.

Yet NATO was worthy of better. Whatever challenges it faces today — and some coming from disaffected members like Turkey are urgent — NATO must be judged a rousing success.

According to the Brookings Institution research group, NATO is one of the most enduring military alliances in the past 500 years. It rose from the wreckage of the Second World War, when European nations so recently freed from the scourge of Nazi Germany were confronted by an aggressively expansionist Soviet Union.

May 29, 2002

Some critics insisted NATO had passed its best-before date. Russian President Vladimir Putin showed how wrong they were. Today, and with support from Canada’s Armed Forces, the 29-member alliance has deployed troops in the Baltic States, Ukraine and Poland to halt Putin’s territorial ambitions. When the Russians annexed Crimea and destabilized eastern Ukraine, an impotent United Nations watched. NATO acted.

Despite Trump’s rants and threats, Congress and the American people are largely supportive of NATO. They know the alliance helped them in Afghanistan and how much the friendship of so many nations counts in a changing, uncertain world just awakening to the rise of a headstrong, authoritarian China.

Today’s world is very different from what it was in 1949. But for seven decades NATO has helped guide it through seas both calm and rough. Change it must and will. But NATO is still needed and we hope it lasts at least seven decades more. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Tuesday February 12, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 12, 2019

Why Canada needs to make the Arctic a national priority

July 26, 2007

You may not know this, but Canada’s Arctic makes up nearly 40 per cent of our country’s land. Based on that alone, you would think that our federal government would prioritize the protection, careful development and stewardship of the far north.

But you’d be wrong. If northern development and affairs are priorities with the Trudeau government, it’s not obvious from the outside. In fact, a growing number of international experts are voicing concern that Canada is falling behind in terms of coherent policy and ambition of our northern territory.

Scandinavian countries aren’t making the same mistake. Neither are Russia and China, both of whom have robust and ambitious goals and are taking actions that should concern Canadians.

Russia, for example, is remilitarizing its far north in order to improve its access to Arctic territories. There is new military hardware, improved communication infrastructure. Industry, surface and marine transport and offshore resource development have seen massive investment. Russia is also expanding its icebreaker fleet to improve shipping lane access.

April 1, 1999

China last year released a white paper about the Arctic. Its stated policy goals are to “understand, protect, develop and participate in the governance of the Arctic, so as to safeguard the common interests of all countries and the international community in the Arctic, and promote sustainable development of the Arctic.”

This issue isn’t new. But it’s getting more urgent for a couple of reasons. One is climate change. With ice receding shipping channels are getting bigger and more accessible and commercial interests are getting more pressing. The other is Russia’s ambitious push to restore its place in the world order — to levels it hasn’t enjoyed since the days of the USSR — and the place Arctic development and ownership play in that.

Then there is Finland, and other Nordic countries, where northern development has always been more of a priority than in Canada. At the University of Oulu, on the edge of the Arctic Circle, Finns are testing a 5G network to study and develop communication technology and innovation. And in 2016, the Finnish government launched the Aurora project, referred to as an “Arctic intelligent transport test ecosystem” to facilitate testing of autonomous vehicle technology in harsh conditions on northern roads. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Saturday October 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 28, 2018

‘Difficult contract’ binds Canada to Saudi LAV deal, Trudeau says

October 12, 2018

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it’s difficult to break Canada’s deal to supply light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia because of the way the contract was negotiated by the previous Conservative government. 

“The contract signed by the previous government, by Stephen Harper, makes it very difficult to suspend or leave that contract,” Trudeau told host Matt Galloway on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Tuesday. “We are looking at a number of things, but it is a difficult contract.

“I actually can’t go into it, because part of the deal on this contract is not talking about this contract, and it’s one of the binds that we are left in because of the way that the contract was negotiated.”

August 10, 2018

Saudi Arabia faces possible international repercussions over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trudeau, in Toronto today to announce how Canada will go about implementing the carbon tax, was asked in the Metro Morning interview what Canada could do.

Canada and many of its allies are trying to figure out what kind of diplomatic and economic pressure can be applied to Saudi Arabia to make it clear that the killing of the dissident journalist inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey is unacceptable.

Germany, for example, has stopped its arms sales to the kingdom in light of this incident.

May 13, 2016

But Canada continues to fulfil its contract to supply the kingdom with LAVs built by General Dynamic Land Systems Canada, a military supplier in London, Ont.

Even before Khashoggi’s death, human rights advocates said Canada should not be supplying the Saudis with military vehicles that could assist in its ongoing military intervention in Yemen, where civilians have been brutally targeted.

Trudeau said he understands this situation “very well,” calling it “incredibly frustrating.” (Source: CBC News) 

 

 

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