Whoah God only knows, God
makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip
sliding away
chorus repeats 2x
Published on Tuesday, January
13, 2004 by the Toronto Star
Can PM Appease Bush?
by Thomas Walkom
Some refer to George W. Bush
as another Hitler. This is a gross exaggeration. He has constructed
no death camps and only one concentration camp — at Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba.
While it does seem, in Nuremberg
terms, that Bush could be called a war criminal (invading other
countries on the flimsiest of pretexts), he has not engaged in
genocide. Nor, unlike Volkswagen supporter Hitler, does he promote
the production of small, cheap cars.
True, both came to power constitutionally
(although under dubious circumstances and with the support of
only a minority of voters). True, both masterfully used traumatic
events at home (the 1933 Reichstag fire for Hitler; 9/11 for
Bush) to make a frightened and resentful populace accept restrictions
on civil liberties.
True, also, that the U.S.
leader shares Hitler's taste for military costumes — although
to be fair to the German dictator, he did serve on active duty
in wartime.
But overall, the comparison
is far from exact, lending credence to Karl Marx's famous comment
that when history repeats itself, the first time is tragedy,
the second, farce.
Still, for Canada and novice
Prime Minister Paul Martin — currently trying to engage
Bush in Monterrey, Mexico — there are certain similarities.
Like central European nations of the 1930s, Canada finds itself
next door to a powerful nation led by an unusually aggressive
and perhaps slightly unhinged man. What to do?
It's generally forgotten now,
but in the mid-'30s Hitler was not universally condemned as evil
personified. Indeed, he had many admirers in Europe and North
America — people who lauded his "leadership,"
who lionized his moral certainty (no namby-pamby moral relativism
there) and who either forgave, or actively applauded, what was
then called anti-Semitism and today would be labeled racial profiling.
Chorus:
Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding
away
Whoah and I know a man, he
came from my hometown
He wore his passion for his woman like a thorny crown
He said Dolores, I live in fear
My love for you's so overpowering, I'm afraid that I will disappear
chorus
I know a woman, (who) became
a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said a good day ain't got no rain
She said a bad day is when I lie in the bed
And I think of things that might have been
chorus
And I know a father who had
a son
He longed to tell him all the reasons for the things he'd done
He came a long way just to explain
He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
Then he turned around and he headed home again
chorus
Whoah God only knows, God
makes his plan
The information's unavailable to the mortal man
We're workin' our jobs, collect our pay
Believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip
sliding away
chorus repeats 2x
World leaders were wary and
respectful. Canada's then-prime minister, Mackenzie King, confided
in his diary after meeting Hitler in 1937 that the dictator was
"one who truly loves his fellow men and his country and
would make any sacrifice for their good ... a man of deep sincerity
and a genuine patriot ... a teetotaller."
Yet even King, an ocean away
from Germany, recognized that Hitler's ambitions could cause
trouble. Consider the difficulties of Germany's small neighbors.
Should they stay resolutely neutral and hope for the best (Belgium,
Switzerland), sign onto Hitler's security agenda (Austria, Hungary,
Romania) or rely on agreements with other nations (Poland, Czechoslovakia)?
These are the choices Canada
faces with Bush's America. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien
attempted the Swiss solution — stay out of the aggressor's
wars but continue to sell him whatever he needs. Hitler was comfortable
with that level of tacit support. Bush appears to want more.
Martin seems to be veering
to the Romanian model of more active support for Bush's military
aims. I say "seems" because, as usual, Martin's actions
to date have been rhetorical and procedural — setting up
new committees, making vague promises.
Indeed, those far more familiar
with Paul Martin's thinking than I whisper that, at heart, the
new Prime Minister is no different from Chrétien here.
If so, rhetoric will dominate — plus one or two substantive
measures.
Like Chrétien, Martin
will offer up the Canadian navy and special commando units to
the U.S. (those interested in the level to which Canadian maritime
forces are already under U.S. command should read Kelly Toughill's
masterful piece in last Saturday's Star).
Like Chrétien, Martin
will almost certainly sign onto Bush's missile defense scheme.
Canada's hope, like that of Russia and Europe, is that missile
defense will be harmless (it doesn't work), will provide juicy
contracts for industry, and will focus Bush's attention away
from invading small nations.
Will Martin go further? Leftish
Liberals hope he will simply be a politer Chrétien: Don't
join the aggressor's wars but don't call him a moron either.
Those on the right, including
many of Martin's business supporters, want a version of the Austrian
model: Anschluss (annexation) in everything but name. However,
the U.S. has little interest in this so it's unlikely to happen.
Martin has vowed to keep the
Canada-U.S. border open to commerce. This is an easy promise
to keep since the Americans want that too. He said he would persuade
the Americans to "respect" the Canadian passport. He
won't get that. He may get an agreement on softwood lumber (which
isn't up to Bush; even Hitler wasn't all-powerful). But Martin
will get a lumber deal only if he gives the Americans everything
they want.
My guess is that if Martin
wants the U.S. president to like him, if he wants those coveted
invitations to the ranch so useful for winning votes in Alberta,
he will have to offer something more — that Canada will
have to be a little more Romania and a little less Switzerland.
Switzerland, of course, survived
World War II intact. Romania did not.
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