Dear Ed.

What a pissant attempt at spin doctoring on ATV tonight. Like most Americans, Dr. Schlech has no comprehension of Canada and Canadians whatsoever.

We are not angry at the loss of a few of our own. That happens in war. If anything we know that better than Americans, who since Vietnam have fought their wars largely by proxy, or with such overwhelming technological and/or numerical advantage (as in Iraq and Japan) they cannot fail to win.

We are angry that the US media and US gov't took no notice of it until they suddenly realised they had a PR problem. This depite their gaffe last fall, when they literally could not bring themselves to say `thank you.' I'm half-amazed we got our M$75 of precious metals back, considering the US' desperate financial position. (We're not too happy with normally-intelligent people like Mike Duffy trying to make excuses for Shrub Dubya, either; but that's an internal matter.)

We have fewer people than the state of California. We cannot be expected to have as much military as the US.

We do not piss off large segments of humanity on a routine basis. We therefore do not need as much military.

The US has a grossly overinflated military to begin with; with only 5% of humanity they account for fully a third of all military spending, and have the gall to call it defense. (In fact the US itself is our only serious military threat, with clear means, motive, and opportunity. Our best defense right now is to be so weak they could never justify an invasion to the rest of the world; they'd just be showing themselves indisputably the bullies they are.)

The US neither wants nor needs our contribution.

Furthermore, with respect to Afghanistan, the US has accomplished what it went there to do -- as usual, replace an favourable government so as to access massive petroleum deposits. The day before, Rumsfeld himself admitted that they never had any useful idea where Osama is; they've just been fooling around all along. Recall that exactly none of the alleged highjackers are alleged to have been Afghan (yet within a week of 9/11 the US had cut off all the food aid that was keeping 7 million Afghans alive). They were, however, Saudi and Egyptian; why has zero action been taken in those places? Recall that the FBI has confirmed Pakistan sent an alleged lead hijacker, Atta, $100000 last summer; yet Pakistan became an ally.

Therefore, it is time we pulled our people out. The job is done, and we've gotten all the thanks we're gonna get.

Hume Smith
9022753266
Chester NS