What the hell is wrong with this idiot.
Harper Demands answers in UN Death
Globe and Mail
Hopewell Cape, N.B., Ottawa - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under attack by political opponents over his Middle East policy, said yesterday he will seek explanations from the United Nations and the Israeli government about the "terrible tragedy" that killed a Canadian peacekeeper in Lebanon.
Mr. Harper described as "troubling" events surrounding the Israeli attack that killed four peacekeepers, including Canadian Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, who was serving with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Canadian officials characterized the major as missing and presumed dead.
The peacekeepers were killed when a bomb hit their post in the town of Khiyam, near the eastern end of Lebanon's border with Israel.
The Prime Minister offered no condemnation of Israel for the deadly bombing and instead suggested that the United Nations should not have put the men in harm's way.
"I'll be asking our military to be in discussions with the government of Israel and the United Nations to find out exactly what happened and why," Mr. Harper said after a funding announcement in New Brunswick.
"We want to find out why this United Nations post was attacked and also why it remained manned during what is now more or less a war and during obvious danger to these particular individuals. I'm going to ask our military to consult with the United Nations and the government of Israel to get answers to these troubling questions."
The Canadian Prime Minister spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday afternoon. A spokeswoman for Mr. Harper said the conversation lasted several minutes. Mr. Olmert, she said, expressed his deep regret for the incident and apologized on behalf of his government to Canadians.
But representatives of the government of Israel would not characterize Mr. Olmert's words as an apology, saying only that the Israeli Prime Minister expressed "regret" and "sorrow" at the "unintentional killing" of the UN observers.
Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, said there may have been a Hezbollah rocket launcher near the post and "mistakes happen" during the type of warfare being conducted in southern Lebanon.
Before his conversation with Mr. Olmert, Mr. Harper told reporters that he did not agree with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan who said the bombings were deliberate.
"We're going to want to get all the information before making a judgment," Mr. Harper said. "I can tell you that I certainly doubt that to be the case, given that the government of Israel has been co-operating with us in our evacuation efforts and our attempts to move Canadian citizens out of Lebanon and also trying to keep our troops on the ground involved in evacuation out of harm's way. So I seriously doubt that but we want to get information."
Members of the opposition were quick to criticize Mr. Harper's failure to demand an apology from the Israelis. And they condemned the Conservative decision to side with Israel in the dispute, saying Canada has abandoned its traditional role of peace broker in the region.
"I think Canadians are justifiably very distressed about how Harper tossed in the towel on diplomacy from Day 1. He is basically just prepared to be on the other end of George Bush's tether and essentially played no role whatsoever in pressing for a ceasefire that is desperately, desperately needed," said Alexa McDonough, the NDP foreign affairs critic.
Liberal Leader Bill Graham said Major Hess-von Kruedener died doing what Canadians expect of their people in the Middle East: keeping peace.
"Canada for a long time had a traditional role in the Middle East that was difficult but it was one that enabled us to be an interlocutor that [allowed] us over the long time to advance the cause of peace," Mr. Graham said.
"Mr. Harper, for his reasons whether they are domestic politically or ideological has chose to abandon that position of Canada and now we are seeing what can be the long-term consequences of that."
As the evacuation efforts of Lebanese-Canadians wind down -- as many as 10,000 will leave Lebanon with Canadian government assistance -- Mr. Harper yesterday defended his position on the massive evacuation but reiterated that he would revisit policies in the future.
"Our priority in this case has been the evacuation of citizens who are also residents but we have also been willing to evacuate citizens who are not permanent residents of Canada," he said.
"This has been somewhat controversial but there are large numbers involved and in other parts of the world there are even larger numbers involved. In future I think we'll look at the lessons learned here and evaluate what are the reasonable expectations of the government of Canada in these kinds of crises."
The Prime Minister said that Canada has already promised $1-million in aid to Lebanon that will be distributed through the Red Cross and that more would be made available.
The Prime Minister said it is premature to say whether a UN peacekeeping force should be dispatched to Lebanon. But he said he would prefer Canada keep its troops out of Lebanon because a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah should be enforced by Middle East countries. The United States has proposed a NATO-led intervention force in southern Lebanon and wants the UN to sanction it as it did for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
"There is no consensus on any kind of international force in Lebanon, either from the UN or NATO," Mr. Harper said.
"I've made clear our preference would be not to see Canadian or foreign troops involved, but obviously we're prepared to work with the international community on whatever plan a consensus develops on."
