myopia

Abba Eban, long-time Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs (and incidentally a man of such erudition and lingusitic complexity that it was rumoured digintaries carried dictionaries in order to decipher the more arcane points of his speeches) said that what defined the Palestinians was that "they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity"

The minority Liberal government of Canada, a bunch of inept, bumbling politicos at the best of times has just pulled a bungle that is truly worthy of Abba Eban's famed definiton. Our prime minister, Paul "Let me be perfectly clear" Martin has taken well over a year to reach a decision not to join the U.S. missile shield initiative.

This, in one fell swoop, accomplishes three "great" political goals:

a) it further angers and alienates the Americans on whose backs Canada's defence has now rested for decades and will continue to rest for eons to come
b) it deprives thousands of Canadians of potential excellent job and research opportunities, fully funded by Uncle Sam
c) it cedes sovereignty over Canada's airspace with a dismissive wave of a hand: rest assured that the Americans will not politely ask our permission to shoot rockets over our territory.

Such moronic myopia in the name of political expediency is nothing short of nauseating. Sell your country's long-term interests for the votes of the Toronto, Montreal and West Coast elites. You think you're sticking it to the Americans - a childish, petulant behaviour, to be sure. But you're not! You're sticking it to your own country, its future and its place among the community of nations to whom independence, liberty and pride are real, tangible concepts.