International affairs writer Eric Margolis, interviewed Wednesday on the Scott Horton Show, commented that he would not be surprised if the killers of Canada soldiers in Ontario and Quebec this week were motivated to react to the Canada government’s adoption of “a very, very hostile policy toward Muslims in general.” Margolis pins the responsibility for the adoption of this policy largely on Stephen Harper, who has been the nation’s prime minister since February of 2006, and some of the groups supporting Harper.
Margolis points to particular aspects of this policy, including that Canada “just dispatched six warplanes to go and bomb ISIS or whoever in Syria and Iraq” and has spent billions of dollars and over 100 troops’ lives on the Afghanistan war and occupation. Margolis, a Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity academic board member, sums up the dramatic transition toward Canada becoming a target for blowback as follows:
… Canada, which not long ago was liked everywhere—Canada didn’t have an enemy in the world, has now put itself into the gun sights of militant extremist terrorists, whatever you want to call them. And, as I’ve been saying for a long time, it’s only a matter of time before angry people attack.
Indeed, just over twelve years ago in a June of 2002 US House of Representatives speech, RPI Founder and Chairman Ron Paul mentioned Canada among countries that should not expect blowback:
A growing number of Americans are concluding that the threat we now face comes more as a consequence of our foreign policy than because the bad guys envy our freedoms and prosperity. How many terrorist attacks have been directed toward Switzerland, Australia, Canada, or Sweden? They too are rich and free, and would be easy targets, but the Islamic fundamentalists see no purpose in doing so.
There’s no purpose in targeting us unless there’s a political agenda, which there surely is. To deny that this political agenda exists jeopardizes the security of this country. Pretending something to be true that is not is dangerous.
A few years of militaristic intervention can make a big difference.
Listen to Margolis’ complete interview here.
