Canada Blocked Ceasefire

I swear, Steve (our prime minister) and Pete (our foreign minister) are on a personal crusade to destroy Canada's reputation in the world and they're doing a damn fine job of it:

ROME—The United States, which has the backing of Britain and Canada on how to end the current Middle East crisis, frustrated attempts by other leading countries here yesterday to craft a plan for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
[...]
The U.S., backed by Britain and Canada, takes the position that a truce would be futile as long as Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon can pose a military threat to Israel.
[...]
After the closed-door meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the main issue was "how do we ensure that this will be not just a ceasefire that will erupt in violence again but that it will be a lasting peace?"

The approach adopted by the U.S., Britain and Canada is widely seen as a green light for the Israeli army to continue with the offensive meant to root out Hezbollah's military presence above the northern Israeli border.

And that green light resulted in this statement from Israel:

"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israel's Army Radio.

"Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror," said Ramon, believed to be close to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The European Union said today that Ramon's interpretation of the Rome meeting result was "totally wrong," and that Mideast hostilities should stop now.

We're now in bed with Bush and Blair and who will end up paying for it? Every Canadian citizen.

That Steve and Pete would be so daft as to go along with the Condi line that this ceasefire, or any ceasefire, should guarantee an end to hostilities ad infinitum is just plain ignorant. It's ignorance of what ceasefires are about. It's ignorance of the fact that Israel now believes it can continue its war crimes while sacrificing the lives of more of its citizens in the process. It's ignorant of the fact that some 600 Lebanese are now dead - including babies. And it's ignorant to believe that this won't have long-term ramifications for Canada.

Some commenters on Canadian blogs had posed this question before the Rome meeting, 'who cares what Canada thinks since we're not even on the world's radar screen in this war?'. Well, we certainly are now, aren't we? Maybe some who asked that question ought to start caring right about now.

We are now on the minority side in this conflict thanks to Steve and Pete. Don't think the world won't notice that. Cozying up with Bush and Blair, who are both horribly unpopular - and rightly so, was a huge mistake.

Welcome to Canada - the home of the new obstructionists.

(See also: The Ceasefire Scoreboard)