Today amid a subdued audience, Premier Gordon Campbell announced the start of a process his government is calling the B.C. Conversation on Health. The home page for this initiative states:
We need the Conversation on Health because British Columbians can and must find ways of making our health system sustainable for the future. We face many challenges as our population ages and new technologies and treatments are introduced.
Were opening the floor to all British Columbians. We need you involved. We need a serious discussion of health so we can solve these challenges.
Apparently a serious discussion
doesn’t mean a truthful discussion, for on the page entitled Health by Numbers, Campbell’s new web site replays the same falsehood Carole Taylor pushed out last week to a largely sleepy press corps:
- 43% the percentage of total government spending that goes to health care this year
- 70% the potential percentage of total government spending that health care could consume by 2017
As journalist Will McMartin has already shown (Carole Taylor’s False Alarm, The Tyee), Campbell and Taylor are using an inconsistent set of numbers to portray health care spending increases in an inappropriately alarming light. Other than using the phrase “could consume”, it doesn’t appear that Campbell’s government is even ashamed to have been caught at the outset of “the conversation” trying to push the debate along a certain path.
What’s the point of engaging in a discussion on health care with you Mr. Premier, if straight out of the gate you are using falsehoods as propaganda to colour the conversation?
Earlier this week we learned of leaked details from a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate which, as is only common sense, confirmed for us all that the U.S.-Iraq war is responsible for generating even more terrorism. Quite predictably Bush doesn’t accept this opinion, for it undermines what has come to define his presidency.
Some people have guessed what’s in the report and concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree. President G. W. Bush
Under pressure, Bush promised to declassify the report so people could see for themselves, yet what was declassified does nothing to support Bush’s assertion:
Although we cannot measure the extent of the spread with precision, a large body of all-source reporting indicates that activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion.
If this trend continues, threats to US interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide.
We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.
Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement: (1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness; (2) the Iraq jihad; (3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and (4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims, all of which jihadists exploit. selected quotations from a National Intelligence Estimate (U.S.) recently declassified
The U.S. intelligence community isn’t alone in their views. Yesterday the United Nations released a report for the UN Security Council which concluded that the war in Iraq was providing recruiting momentum for Al Qaeda, and training ground for would-be insurgents and future terrorists.
Another report from the British Ministry of Defense said that Iraq had become a recruiting Sargent for terrorists
. Even by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s own measure, the U.S. achieves a failing grade in its war on terror
:
Three years ago, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld wrote a memo to his colleagues in the Pentagon posing a critical question in the long war against terrorism: Is Washingtons strategy successfully killing or capturing terrorists faster than new enemies are being created?
Until Tuesday, the government had not publicly issued an authoritative answer. But the newly declassified National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism does exactly that, and it concludes that the administration has failed the Rumsfeld test. (Study Doesnt Share Bushs Optimism on Terror Fight)
The White House continues to insist that Americans are safer because of the Iraq war, that it was the right thing to do, and, having painted themselves into a corner, they’ll keep on misleading until Bush’s last day in office. Just wait until the propaganda machines are fully revved up for the upcoming election.
Tie in to Canada
Both the U.N. and British reports discuss the situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban of Afghanistan are incorporating the lessons of Iraq at a rapid rate – weapons and techniques first used in Iraq are very quickly finding their way into use in Afghanistan. The British report also criticizes that government for walking into Afghanistan with its eyes closed
.
Canada joined that club to be sure, under Martin, and under Harper our foreign policy has been reduced now to a mere bullet point or two attached to attached to U.S. foreign policy. Instead of crafting a distinctly Canadian approach to the world, Harper has tied us even more tightly to the Anglo-American bunglers who are largely responsible for the mess this world is in now. Blinded by ideology, perhaps Harper just can’t help himself.