Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Canwest: Using War Widows as Propaganda Tools

In an article appearing in the uber-conservative Calgary Herald yesterday headed “Widow of fallen Calgary medic supports Canadian mission in Afghanistan” it appears that Nicole Starker, the wife of a soldier killed in an ambush in Afghanistan last week either doesn’t have a clue what the “mission” is or Canwest is deliberately misrepresenting her views.

In the piece, she’s quoted as saying “I support Canada as a peacekeeping nation and what happened to Mike hasn’t changed that for me.” Well, that’s just dandy, but we’re not actually “peacekeeping” in Afghanistan. This is something our more bloodthirsty, bellicose “Conservative” friends are quite eager to point out when they seethe with contempt at the whole notion of peacekeeping; a military activity they regard as nothing but a shameful relic of the Liberal past, or as that moronic twat from Pictou (no, the other one) Mike McGuire put it yesterday, “a glorified blue bereted constabulary, puppets of the UN globalists.”

So, given that Mrs. Starker may have the wrong idea altogether about what our troops are actually doing in Afghanistan, why is the Calgary Herald misleadingly making it seem as though she supports the present “combat mission”? And furthermore, why are we treated to simpering inanities like this: “I thought he was too good a guy for anything to happen to him”? Wow. With all due respect, statements really don’t get much dumber than that. As if only “bad” people get killed in war.

h/t: Foottothefire