Hamilton Spectator

A colonial occupation will never work in Iraq

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The Yanks’ war plan sounds solid enough on paper. Capture land in Iraq quickly. Use it to set up bases for further attacks. Bomb Saddam’s palaces and cut command centres from the rest of the country to quicken the government’s collapse. Then make a seamless transition to military occupation. Don’t get caught in ugly street fighting. Deliver food. Get Iraqis involved with a new economic plan. Unfurl the flag of democracy.

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In the Arab world there are no lonely singles

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It’s Valentine’s Day. Great fun. Two years ago today, I proposed to Jean. Her ring was presented in a restaurant, with the help of the official town crier, his booming voice, clanging bell and scroll. Moments later, along with thousands of others in London, Ont., we heard about our upcoming “royal wedding” on the radio.

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Three died ‘sacrificially’

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Jarring images of how an Islamic extremist burst into, of all places, a hospital in the last days of 2002, to fire bullets from his Kalishnikov into the heads of our friends will linger for a while. My wife Jean and I and some colleagues are still laying to rest what has become known across Yemen as ‘The Jibla Tragedy.’

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We should emulate the Yemeni Way

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SANA’A, YEMEN ✦ The Yanks. We love ’em. We hate ’em.

Indeed, Jean and I are still recovering from the news of the brutal slaying of threeU.S.aid workers, including a doctor friend, at Jibla missionary hospital.

The killer, apparently an Islamic extremist, reportedly said he killed “to get closer to God.” Right.

And who better to kill than American Christians? It’s killing two birds, innocent as they may be, with one stone.

Indeed,U.S.foreign policy really has folks in a huff these days. In fact, many of us would bend over backward to disassociate ourselves from the Yanks. No?

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Santa: help us all find some horse sense

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Dear Santa: Thanks for last year’s gift, the Gulliver’s Travels book. I enjoyed the Houyhnhnms, those horse-like characters. So bright. So noble. And those savage Yahoos. So dim. So lost. Poor Gulliver couldn’t see himself in them. But Gulliver really was a traveller. Like you Santa. That’s why I’m writing. Distribution problems down here are getting worse.

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