Canadians Blame US for 9/11

[muskrat89]

Great.. like I don't spend enough time trying to explain Canadian views to my American friends and co-workers..  :

Reproduced under the fair dealings and provisions thingamabob...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/07092006/3/canada-new-poll-says-most-canadians-blame-u-s-9.html

New poll says most Canadians blame U.S. for 9/11 attacks

Thu Sep 7, 11:50 AM

A majority of Canadians believe U.S. foreign policy was one of the root causes that led to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and Quebecers are quicker to criticize the U.S. administration for its international actions than other Canadians, a recent poll suggests.


Those conclusions are found in a newly released poll conducted by Léger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies.

The poll suggests that 77 per cent of Quebecers polled primarily blame American foreign policy for the Sept. 11 attacks. The results suggest 57 per cent in Ontario hold a similar view.

When participants were given the option of choosing more than one cause for the attacks, two-thirds blamed Islamic fundamentalists and their anti-Western views, while a third pointed the finger at Israel and its position in the Middle East.

Canadian opinions have hardened against the United States and its role on the world stage, said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have contributed to a change of heart among people, he said.

But Canadians are divided on whether their government should pay more attention to issues fuelling extremist organizations in the Middle East, he said.

"There are a lot of people who think we should be listening closely [to extremist groups] and that there is an opportunity to dialogue with these sort of groups," said Jedwab Wednesday. "So it is showing a real ideological divide on some of these issues."

There's a growing need since the Sept. 11 attacks for balanced public education about terrorism, added Jedwab. "There is a tendency to see in these movements something more romantic than actually exists. That's something we need to keep debating in the country."

Léger Marketing interviewed 1,508 Canadian adults from Aug. 22 to Aug. 27. The poll results are considered accurate within 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

 

[big bad john]

Where do they find these people?

 

[tomahawk6]

Its standard thinking for leftists to blame the victim. But what they dont want to accept is that through the 90's we were attacked over and over without an effective response. Kobar Towers, embassy bombings in Africa and the Cole to name a few instances. The reason the US has been attacked is because we are a super power and the only country that stands between the islamofacists and their goal of world domination. Sharia law for all !

 

[Ender Wiggen]

Anti-America Protest's  ;D

 

[paracowboy]

morons. I keep sayin' it: it's time to cull the herd.

 

[Infanteer]

Actually, I think the poll is rather on target.  It's unfortunate that it has a rather inflammatory title.

There is no denying that US policies have a part to play if fuelling Al Qaeda - Osama bin Laden has said so outright in his Fatwas and speeches.  The logical extention to this is "is this necessarily bad?".  I'm not sure it's bad if US policies get people who wish to return to the age of the Prophet riled up.  I think the real answer is, as always, in a grey area.  The US (and the West) has undoubtedly made some poor choices in its approach to the Middle East but these can be countered by some very sound and realistic ones.  Nobody is perfect, and I don't think it is "anti-American" or "anti-Western" to say that the US has made some poor decisions in the past regarding foreign policy - hell, we do it all the time with our own government up here.  The important part is to keep the desired endstate in mind and to roll with the punches when the plan breaks after first contact.

I also think people are right when they point to Israel/Palestine as a root cause.  Solving this is a key to solving our current conflict.

As for the second half of the article, just seems like the usual mix of anti-Americanism and Bush bashing.  Hopefully that can be fixed in a couple years when we can get rid of crackpots like Wolfowitz who are currently at the helm....

 

[Kat Stevens]

Anti-America Protest's  ;D

What's your point?

 

[patrick666]

We shouldn't be pointing fingers at our friends but raising fists to our enemies. It's time to stop playing the blame game and deal with the situation at hand. I don't see how any of this really brings any sort of resolution to anything. I know, it's not meant to but what has been done, has been done regardless who is at fault.

 

[maniac78]

Has anyone here ever attended a social event where America bashing has not taken place? The only one I've been to that didn't include this disgusting and typical Canadian pass time was in the United States. Therefore is it no wonder so many people think this way. It's socially acceptable in Canada to make sweeping disgusting generalizations about Americans but if you do the same thing about any other nationality you'll be called a racist or ignorant. Hell our national tv station has an entire show dedicated to this. That's Canada.

 

[big bad john]

Has anyone here ever attended a social event where America bashing has not taken place? The only one I've been to that didn't include this disgusting and typical Canadian pass time was in the United States. Therefore is it no wonder so many people think this way. It's socially acceptable in Canada to make sweeping disgusting generalizations about Americans but if you do the same thing about any other nationality you'll be called a racist or ignorant. Hell our national tv station has an entire show dedicated to this. That's Canada.

I don't know who you hang out with, but it sure doesn't go on around here.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Actually, I think the poll is rather on target.  It's unfortunate that it has a rather inflammatory title.

There is no denying that US policies have a part to play if fuelling Al Qaeda - Osama bin Laden has said so outright in his Fatwas and speeches.  The logical extention to this is "is this necessarily bad?".  I'm not sure it's bad if US policies get people who wish to return to the age of the Prophet riled up.  I think the real answer is, as always, in a grey area.  The US (and the West) has undoubtedly made some poor choices in its approach to the Middle East but these can be countered by some very sound and realistic ones.  Nobody is perfect, and I don't think it is "anti-American" or "anti-Western" to say that the US has made some poor decisions in the past regarding foreign policy - hell, we do it all the time with our own government up here.  The important part is to keep the desired endstate in mind and to roll with the punches when the plan breaks after first contact.

I also think people are right when they point to Israel/Palestine as a root cause.  Solving this is a key to solving our current conflict.

As for the second half of the article, just seems like the usual mix of anti-Americanism and Bush bashing.  Hopefully that can be fixed in a couple years when we can get rid of crackpots like Wolfowitz who are currently at the helm ....

I hardly think that crackpot is an appropriate descriptor for Paul Wolfowitz.  He is a hard power proponent, true, but that in and of itself hardly merits a crackpot designation.  His current war on corruption in the World Bank, where he is now "at the helm" – arguably the world’s preeminent purveyor of soft power – is long overdue and much needed and hardly the work of a crackpot – except, perhaps, in the eyes of Le Monde and the New York Times.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/ORGANIZATION/EXTOFFICEPRESIDENT/0,,enableDHL:TRUE~menuPK:51175739~pagePK:64260331~piPK:51174219~theSitePK:1014541,00.html

As we have discussed before, I have no objection, in principle, to an invasion of Iraq; I disagreed, in 2002, and I disagree now with the notion that the aim should be to turn Iraq into a peaceful, democratic state.  That may be desirable, even remotely possible but, hardly in my view, a good reason to go to war.  Igniting a major conflagration which will engulf most of the Islamic Crescent in a long, long series of internecine revolutions, wars and other assorted forms of mayhem, resulting in an eventual Islamic reformation and consequential Afro-Arab/Persian/West Asian enlightenment, still seems, to me, a useful programme.  Even the crackpot Wolfowitz never went that far! 

 

[manhole]

77% of Quebecers? hmmmmmmmm.....'nuff said.