UPDATED: Remember Libya and Afghanistan? Forget Iraq and Syria!

Those who think that the government-controlled [and financed! Poor Len] Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is simply a mouthpiece for the hawkish Harper should pay attention. The CBC gives a lot of time and space to commentators -- including some of its own staffers -- who are anti-war and (at least mildly) anti-Harper.

One such is Brian Stewart, one of Canada's most experienced journalists and foreign correspondents. Currently he is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. He also sits on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch Canada. In almost four decades of reporting, he has covered many of the world's conflicts and reported from 10 war zones, from El Salvador to Beirut and Afghanistan.

The CBC News website today features a thoughtful piece by Mr. Stewart entitled "Before Canada goes too far into Iraq, remember Libya, Afghanistan". This is a must read for Canadians and Americans too!

Western interventions in Afghanistan and Libya are too recent to have made it into the history books. Mr. Stewart reminds those who weren't paying attention that those "military operations have been followed by the violent rise of the black flag of ISIS jihadism in these same conflict zones.... Not an encouraging record." Indeed.

Mr. Stewart goes on to say that "Canada rarely seems to anticipate the depths of chaos that it's wading into when it unleashes our CF-18s and other combat units on far-flung wars and insurgencies we know very little about." Indeed, (again).

He goes on to say, "We plunge in, it seems, even when our own military warns of dire consequences." He gives the example of Libya. Canada's military intelligence [an oxymoron, surely! Ed.] warned the Harper government in March 2011 that Libya would descend into a lengthy civil war if our planes and other Western bombers helped crush the Qadaffi regime. So that's what they did. Of course.

The result? The NATO coalition "helped unleash a nightmarish civil war and murderous anarchy on a nation that still lacks a stable government four years later." You'd think today's Western leaders -- especially Hellery Clinton-- would realize their mistake. But noooo...

Mr. Stewart goes on to detail the rise of ISIS in Libya and now Afghanistan, and then asks the telling question: "Who anymore can confidently predict the outcome?"

Who? Walt! That's who! My prediction: it will all end in tears and recrimination. Lifetime pct .991.

Further reading on WWW:
"First Canadian soldier killed in mission vs ISIS" - Walt told you so!
"Mark Twain reflects on the folly of trying to civilize barbarians" - So did Mr. Clemens, 117 years ago!

UPDATE (March 13th) -- Click here to read and hear Ron Paul explain why "The World Would Be a Better Place with Saddam Hussein Still in Power". Great minds think alike!

Syria: intervention delayed is intervention denied

Well, that didn't take very long, did it. Just yesterday, Len predicted that the Excited States of America would take no immediate action to "punish" Basher Assad for allegedly using chemical weapons against his own people. What was needed, though, was a way for Hussein Obama to remove his foot from his mouth without losing face, of which he has very little left.

Et voilà! British PM David Cameron shows the Prez how to do it, by making an impassioned speech to the House of Commons, after which MPs vote to, errr, not intervene. And so, yesterday afternoon Obama makes another forceful and leaderlike speech saying how strongly he feels that some kind of military action -- albeit "limited", "surgical" and other weasel words -- must be taken. But... Congress must give its approval before anything is actually done, because that's the democratic American way.

Wow. Talk about kicking the ball into the long grass! The Prez is referring the matter to Congress for due deliberation and diligence. How long will that take? Congress is due to reconvene on September 9th, which means no military operation could commence until then... if then. We know, too, that Obama's record of getting Congress to act on his requests has been something short of stellar.

We predict that two weeks from now the world will still be waiting for America to do something beyond increasing the stridency of its tut-tutting. And Assad? He will be barely able to smother his laughter.

Are we going to hit Syria or not? How we're betting...

It looks as if President Hussein Obama is bound and determined to counter his wussy image [not "uppity"? Ed.] by ordering a "limited, surgical" air strike against Syria, even though a good many members of Congress and the majority of the American people are opposed to intervention in that insane civil war. That'll show those Ay-rabs, huh!

Mind you, the Prez hasn't actually pushed the button yet. Perhaps he's waiting to see how many other countries are lining up for sloppy seconds. So far only France and Turkey -- yes, Turkey -- have offered to hold America's coat ["coat-tails", surely. Ed.].

The British Parliament, perhaps mindful of Tony Bliar's "WMD" deception, voted down Prime Minister Cameron's motion to lead the charge. Rather a sticky wicket, wot! And Canada's Steve Harper, normally in favour of anything that Israel is in favour of, has declined even to call the Canuck Parliament back from its summer snooze. That way, you see, he won't have to answer any embarrassing questions about the ongoing scandal involving his two favourite "journalists", Mike Puffy and Pam Wally.

Or perhaps Obama is fearful lest a "boots on the ground" invasion of Syria, which would follow as surely as the next president will be a Republican, turn into another (a) Libya, (b) Afghanistan, (c) Iraq, (d) Vietnam, (e) all of the above. Obie is not a stupid man. He may even realize that the rest of the world doesn't want the USA to be the world's policeman. But of course he can't say that in public.

So will the USA (or anyone else?) actually do anything to/about Syria? Len thinks not. Stay tuned.

Further reading: "15 Signs That Obama Has Already Made The Decision To Go To War With Syria", by Michael Snyder, posted on Activist Post on Sunday, August 25th. It's now Saturday, August 31st, and still nothing has happened except for a lot of bluster from the mouths of Obama, Kerry and, errr, Cameron. That's all ye know and all ye need to know.