Blistering Bluster

It's often engaged in, but no more frequently than by politicians eager to sink home a point of honour, of moral integrity, of outrage against any and all whose character and behaviour offends universal morality.

The Conservative-led Government of Canada has done a fine job of demonstrating to the world precisely the manner in which it condemns and disdains immoral leaders, those whose vicious human-rights abuses against their own people and whose belligerence toward others marks them as beyond the pale of acceptance - none more to the obviously representative than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Why then, one wonders, blur and undermine the stringency of that condemnation by promising to confront another world-class misfit, one whose mad ravings set him aside as truly especial, a tyrannical lunatic - when it would be far better to simply ignore him. Knowing that Moammar Gadhafi's planning team was preparing to land for re-fuelling at Gander, Newfoundland, why not simply, state-to-state, issue a refusal of permission to land, to sully Canadian soil, with his unappetizing, mercenarily-murderous presence?

What is this all about, these schoolboy taunts and promises? That the prime minister has obliged his foreign affairs minister with the task of hying himself off to Newfoundland directly from the United Nations General Assembly to meet-and-greet and insult the King of Kings on Canadian soil...? To what purpose, exactly? After all, careful steps have been taken to obtain full news coverage of the plan; for days ahead Canadian media have been trumpeting the intention of the prime minister and his foreign affairs minister to confront the man.

Did they really anticipate that, despite his ravings, he would remain oblivious to the intended insult and simply forge ahead, arriving on schedule to make himself available for the anticipated dressing-down? His entourage was known to have planned to stay over in Gander, and to have the King of Kings of Africa's Bedouin tent planted in a suitable place on the landscape. His handlers were already on site, making advance preparations. Would not that have been the time to proffer a dignified note of diplomatic denial? A snub that would speak louder than mere words?

Did the government deliberately set out to make itself look rather ineptly foolish on this file? Well, we forgive them their excesses, being so utterly satisfied with their performance where it truly counts, at the United Nations. In a manner that brings honour to Canada, quite unlike Canada's performance of the previous several decades. So, thank you, and thank you again, Mr. Prime Minister. You have our gratitude. Truly yours.