RMR: Olivia Chow and Army Deserters

[LivesForJihad]

I am the Lollipop King...and I vote Conservative...

[kpsnnf]

hm.. might have been how he said it but im just not feelin the humor

[shinken13]

Could have used more sarcasm lmao

[isbourne]

I write lol sometimes but Rick Mercer actually makes me laugh out loud. lol

[Rafire66]

omfg, i couldnt stop laughing

[edgarr47]

I like this person becouse he maks fun of pepole herper.

[TheLastCanadian]

Mercer is decent. He's got nothing on Airfarce or Brent Butt.

[TheShart1234]

its funny because its true the liberals and ndp would do that

[00Billy]

I laughed for more than 37 secs. frikin brilliant

[sushisux]

Can't. Stop. Laughing

[hollowking992]

I'm Canadian and i find Mercer funnier than John Stewart or Steven Colbert. I think colbert is funny too but i hate Stewart.

[kether83]

LMAO... I love Mercer... I wish more Americans could appreciate his humor.

[SolOfTheArcangel]

I agree, being Canadian, our political humor is extremely humorous compared to Americas

[bigkellyr]

I am American and have been watching as much Mercer as I can on YouTube since we don't get any Canadian channels. I think this guy is way better than Steven Colbert and John Stewart combined. Keep it up Rick!

[LudicrousPlatypus]

@SolOfTheArcangel humour.... support Canadiana

[SolOfTheArcangel]

@LudicrousPlatypus If you mean Canada, then you're indeed correct, the term 'Canadiana' is an American term haha



[LudicrousPlatypus]

@SolOfTheArcangel Sorry that is quite the mistake

[SolOfTheArcangel]

@LudicrousPlatypus Hmm I think otherwise

[LudicrousPlatypus]

@SolOfTheArcangel I'm Confused what you mean, and I guess I shouldn't bag you for using an American Spelling as Canadian Culture is littered with American Culture

[SolOfTheArcangel]

@LudicrousPlatypus I know its littered with American culture, but I would like to see some Canadian culture still somewhere in there. If we become fully Americanized, then whats stopping the US from thinking they should annex us?

[LudicrousPlatypus]

@SolOfTheArcangel that is what I am saying spell Humour as 'humour' the traditional Canadian Way and not 'humor' the american way, (also pronounce z as zed not zee, it really bugs me when people say zee)

[SolOfTheArcangel]

@LudicrousPlatypus Oh well I've been living in the states for the last 5 years, guess its been growing on me without me even knowing it hahaha. Well I'm returning back home to British Columbia in a few years so hopefuly all that'll go back to normal hahah (its funny though, I still say 'zed' and not 'zee' and it confuses Americans hahaha

[LudicrousPlatypus]

@kether83 Humour.... Support Canadiana

[LoouLost]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL !!! XD

[xianglee1]

lmao!

[paraskunkmusic]

killing people is f*cked up no matter who pulls the trigger and why.

no wonder we lost our soul.

:(

[bohnerbob]

the thing that ticks me off the most about diserters is when they publicly trash talk my countrys foreign policy in afghanistan when we took them under our wing. we are not the same as the amarican armed forces in our ROE and we do alot more to help the afghan people. so no one should trash talk our contribution to afghanistan.

[Bus7777]

:10 OMG LOL

[WarResistersCanada]

Suicide rates for US soldiers have skyrocketed this year. There are 4 million Iraqi refugees thanks to the war (according to the U.S.). Thousands of Iraqis are dead, and over 4,000 soldiers are dead.

64% of Canadians want the Harper government to let Iraq war resisters stay in Canada. Heck, even Parliament voted June 3, 2008 to let them stay.

Canada should be a refuge from illegal wars, and these soldiers should be allowed to stay so that they are not forced to be complicit in the war in Iraq.

[filrut]

These deserters were volunteers not draftees, thats the critical difference. If these deserters have objections against the use of force they shouldn't join the army. By going AWOL they've also committed a criminal offense. Would you want to make it easy for convicted felons to immigrate? I sure hope not. Lastly, the war wasn't illegal because the UN resolutions didn't rule out the use of force. A technical ambiguity sure, but an important point that gets lost in the hot air.

[WarResistersCanada]

One - Canada accepted thousands of DESERTERS during Vietnam - check your history and facts. Two - the UN Security Council did not approve of pre-emptive strike on Iraq and Kofi Annan of the UN condemned the war as illegal. Three - Canada did not send troops and said no to the war. Four - Canadians and Parliament have supported the war resisters. Canadians don't want to do Bush's dirty work by punishing the soldiers and veterans who said NO as we did to the war in Iraq -- especially moms and dads

[filrut]

1:the deserters accepted during Vietnam were conscripts who were forced to join the army. There's a HUGE moral difference between a deserter of a conscript and a volunteer army. Had the Iraq war included draftees I wouldn't object to Canada acccepting them. 2: Read my OP. 3: Canada's abstention\involvement in Iraq is irrelevant to this subject. 4: Do you have any data that supports that statement? These deserters have committed a crime and should be punished. Its that simple...

[filrut]

...Once they've served their time if they want to immigrate to Canada I'll be the first to welcome them.

[WarResistersCanada]

They did serve. One was STOP-LOSSED (back door draft) after 4 years service and 1 year tour in Iraq. Stop-Loss is the military's way of refusing to let go of soldiers once they are finished their serve. Also, CHECK YOUR HISTORY -- Canada accepted THOUSANDS of DESERTERS who volunteered during Vietnam -- even Andy Barrie was a Vietnam deserter who came to Canada. UN Security Council DID NOT vote to endorse the initial pre-emptive invasion and Kofi Annan of the UN said the war was "illegal" in 2004

[gundamWWW]

I really don't find this segment funny. While Rick Mercer is usually funny the lives of Army veterans that want to live peacefully away from an unjust war is something that isn't a laughing matter. I would rather live in a great country like Canada instead of going to Iraq to shoot at a bunch of sandle wearing peasants that just want us out of their country and had nothing to do with 9/11.

[MagMag123]

I personally don't think military deserters should be given the option to run away from their country. They signed on to do a job, they made the commitment knowing fully well the risks against the benefits. You shouldn't be allowed to back out halfway through. Life isn't a video game. There's no "restart from last checkpoint" button. If you want to change your mind, you should either have to do it the hard way and suck it up, or be shot and try again from the very beginning.

[gundamWWW]

You raise a very good point.

The obligation to fufill a commitment when you agree to the term. That principle serves as the basis for our democratic society. However there is also another principle our society is built upon.

"Honesty", like the Vietnam war, this military campaign was built on a fabrication of lies. There were no WMD's and Iraq was not connected to 9/11. So the soliders whom enlisted until 2005 were lied to. It's only fair that they should believe in what their fighting for.

[MagMag123]

If the contracts that the soldiers signed upon recruitment had listed specifically where they would be sent and had not contained Iraq, then I might agree with you. The reality is, the contract that each soldier reads and signs basically says, you agree to serve the state and go wherever you are told to go without question. Every recruit has multiple chances to back out before signing that final contract, knowing fully well that after the ink dries, they were owned by the government.

[gundamWWW]

It's not the "textual contract" or the "document" that is flawed. It's the entire justification behind the war. Like in Vietnam, it was the "Gulf of Tomkin incident". Which ended up not really being true. And then for Iraq the justification was 9/11 and WMD's, chemical ad biological weapons.

The Commander in Chief also takes an oath to "uphold and defend the constitution of the United States". Bush clearly didn't uphold his contract, it's easy to understand why soldiers wouldn't either.

[MagMag123]

I'm not going to criticize or complement Bush's actions when he was in office, but the truth is, he was simply a figurehead for a cabinet of others which made the real decisions and handed him a script. On your note about the oath however, I find it comparable to the same way many criminals may try to justify their actions by saying, "he did it too." In essence, you are saying that having no personal moral fiber is fine and it's alright to commit crimes if a superior does it first.

[gundamWWW]

The point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't always follow the chain of command if you know what your doing is wrong. If your father told you to go shoot a baby and said the baby was Satan's child, would you do it? Probably not.

If your government told you to go fight in Iraq cause they have WMD's and they didn't would you? Probably not.

The Iraq was is winding down, this military campaign really made us look stupid on the world stage and will be remembered for generations.

[MagMag123]

Actually, that's where you're not getting it. The military chain of command isn't something which you can decide to follow or not. There are certain loopholes you can use to bypass or disobey unlawful commands, but running away isn't one of those loopholes. Running away to another country is automatically treason and nothing in court can help them. They screwed themselves.

The reason most people see the war in Iraq as a failure is because there was never a certain victor, unlike WW1 or WW2.

[Nogrentain]

It's one thing to come across serious atrocities, AND be drafted into the army. I see no reason to take in army deserters who volunteered to serve.

[jaba987]

how can we help the deserters?

[snakepitFC]

Haha, it's funny because the NDP always expects their BS "plans" to work magically without any effort.

[filrut]

That's why they never get more than 15% of the vote :P

[klo00100]

rofl

[skiastrix]

LMAO

[L0uiseM]

Love it!