Why Do We? Why Should We?

The Arab, North African, Muslim world is exploding, or imploding in upon itself in a flurry of protests and revolutionary zeal on the part of the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, the unemployed, the poor who have begun to realize that their miserable lives cannot become too much more miserable, if they take it upon themselves to protest. One after another, these corrupt rulers are facing hordes of angry citizens who have never been treated with dignity and honour.

And the international community is fascinated by the ongoing spectacles. And scrambling to ensure that they are able to withdraw their expatriates from a country like Libya whose lunatic tyrant has informed the world that although he is complacent with the thought that he is beloved by his people, he is also prepared to take his bloody revenge on any who dare contest his divine right to rule as Africa's King of Kings.

Moammar Gadhafi has stated that he is well aware that al-Qaeda is behind all of this. He has not yet stated publicly that it is really the State of Israel that is pulling al-Qaeda's strings, but perhaps that is yet to come. He has been beaten to the declarative punch by Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has accused Israel of financing and plotting the protests taking place in Yemen along with those of other Arab states.

"The wave of political unrest sweeping across the Arab world is a conspiracy that serves Israel and the Zionists", he declared at Sanaa University. "They (the protests) are being directed by the White House and the control center for destabilizing the Arab world is in Tel Aviv." In both Egypt and Tunisia crowds among the protesters have expressed similar sentiments, shouting "kill the Jews!".

In Canada, the opposition in Parliament accuses the government of not doing enough to withdraw Canadians in Libya to safety. We've been through this before. Specifically in the same region. Where armed belligerents in Lebanon have provoked the State of Israel to respond to acts of war resulting in the IDF bombing of Hezbollah's positions. And Canada spent $85-million in a rescue operation of Lebanese-Canadians.

Most of whom simply returned back to Lebanon with the cessation of hostilities. And the Canadian taxpayer was left on the hook for the rescue price. Because this was what was expected of the government; that there was an obligation and an expectation that citizens-of-convenience could count on. And the ethnic vote in Canada is a powerful incentive.

Now there's a similar situation in Libya, with the opposition howling on behalf of those Canadians working in Libya and those who are dual citizens of Canada and Libya. With questionable commitment to Canada, but holding Canadian passports. Currently Canada is struggling to lift itself fully out of the financial downturn. We have a mountainous deficit and national debt.

We're strained to pay for all our vaunted social services. We take great pains to make the transition to Canadian life less painful for the 280,000 immigrants the country absorbed this year alone. Hoping they will learn to love Canada and become good loyal citizens. And we're now adding to the deficit by a perceived urgency to rescue a few hundred hyphenated-Canadians languishing in a war zone.

Why do we do this?

Why do we negotiate with criminal terrorists like the Taliban, who have yet again taken another Canadian hostage? Canadians are well aware there is a brutal insurgency war taking place in Afghanistan. Yet a 28-year-old Canadian who loves adventure has gone into an area of Afghanistan considered to be particularly dangerous, to learn Pashto.

This act of absurd bravado by someone bored with his life is yet again the cause of anguish because yet another idiot has set out to prove something he has not yet intelligently articulated. But the "Islamic Emirate" has a price to extract from the Government of Canada for his release. And the Canadian taxpayer will pick up that slack. Again.

Why should we?