Ever so Slowly to Arms

by John Thompson

04/12/04

Winston Churchill famously pointed out (in the British House of Commons) that "democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." As usual, he was quite right.

We are at war with Islamic Fundamentalism… actually this is not technically true. What is true is that Islamic Fundamentalism is at war with us. However, many of us refuse to recognize this, and would prefer to (so far, only metaphorically) shoot messengers who would alert them to their peril, than confront the pitiless antagonists who would destroy our entire civilization and bring our heritage crashing down.

When they put their minds to it, democracies can fight extremely well. Indeed, the Classical Historian and modern essayist, Victor Davis Hanson reminded those who would listen that there are few militaries as motivated and deadly as those of democratic societies. But there are two caveats that must be remembered: First, the majority of citizens in a democratic society must be ready to recognize the need to fight (even the mighty US could not stay in Vietnam, once its citizens decided not to support the war); secondly, its citizens must be ready to see the war through, no matter the cost.

In the Western World’s struggle to withstand the onslaught of the Fundamentalists, there are ample signs that both conditions are a long way from being met.

The great strength of democratic states is the creative tension that arises out of opposed political parties inside their parliaments or legislatures… Unfortunately, this creative tension is often an ideal stage of affairs and is not always realized. Moreover, when the spirit of partisanship grows (as it invariably does), this relationship is poisoned — sometimes fatally. Churchill’s predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, was smart enough to call for a new government in the British Parliament with participation by all parties. This government served Britain very well through its harshest trials. An echo of this was seen in the US in the immediate aftermath of the 911 attacks, when the Republicans and Democrats worked in close accord… for a while.

Unless we get attacked again, with as vicious a surprise as the 911 attacks were, this accord will remain absent, and the pointless partisanship so evident on April 8^th when the US National Security Advisor testified before a Special Committee investigating the attacks is going to continue to undermine America’s ability to defend itself.

Not that Canada is doing much better. Our intelligence services are under-funded (and over head-quartered), few levels of government really take emergency preparedness seriously, and the murder of our military through forty years of depraved neglect is just about complete.

Our main problem is one of knowing vs. believing. A boater who tosses a lifejacket into his boat knows he might need it one day, but he won’t put it on unless he actually believes in his heart that accidents do happen and can happen to him. We know that Islamic Fundamentalism is a problem and that we will be attacked someday. The problem is we don’t believe we will actually be attacked.

Our government and most of our senior civil servants know the threat exists, but many of them don’t actually believe it. To be fair to them, they are only reflecting attitudes held by many Canadians. One can hear their constant pitiful delusions on phone-in shows and see their letters in op-ed pages: "We’ll never be attacked", "We’re a nation of peacekeepers", "The world respects us for our multiculturalism", "We’re not Americans, after all."

Someday, sooner that they may think, Canadians will wake up to fine that we have been hit, and that hundreds (or thousands) of our compatriots have just been killed. Might we then finally brace up, recognize that we are at war, and stand to our defences?

Probably not.

The political party that has formed Canada’s government for more than 70 of the last hundred years has never really believed that security was necessary. The ‘Democratic Deficit’ created by our last prime minister has almost completed the emasculation of the House of Commons, and left the opposition parties yelling at a stone wall. There has been little sign of the creative tension that marks the best of democratic government in many years.

We don’t want this war, often pretend it doesn’t exist and are totally unready for it. As a result, we are going to be hammered by it.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca