FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA: So here am I; having just driven through the country side of North Carolina, being reminded of the iconic 1960's Andy Griffith Show based in the mythical community of Mayberry, North Carolina, USA.
It seems as world leaders and some wannabees (including "ours") gather just 40 miles north of here in Washington D.C. to ponder the future of the planet's nuclear arms proliferation; our Prime-Minister Stephen Harper, on arrival at the conclave has committed Canada's fissionable stock-pile to be delivered to the United-States for decontamination. To the same extent that Mayberry's Deputy Sheriff, Barney Fyfe (aka Don Knotts), was forbidden from loading his pistol: - Surely now the world can rest at peace!
Apparently, it seems that the nation's nuclear bomb-making enriched uranium has been piling-up at the Chalk River, Ontario research laboratory for many years. A result of the medical isotopes produced there for various world wide consumption. Lest I digress; that's the same nuclear facility that's been "closed for repairs" for about a year leaving doctors and hospitals to search far and wide for replacement isotopes: In the process leading the Kanata based MDS Nordion Corporation to the verge of bankruptcy. Never mind the Chalk River security levels.
Probably not since John Diefenbaker (another Tory Prime-Minister) acquired Bomark Missiles from the Americans back in 1959, and then refused to equip them with the nuclear bombs they were designed to carry, has Canada played such a critical, determining role over the future of nuclear proliferation. LOL!
President Obama has gathered in Washington the world's best thinkers and great leaders, with a few missing exceptions, to determine measures which could preclude terrorists from acquiring enriched uranium and build so-called "dirty" bombs. It's a noble cause. But, I can't help but be reminded that here in North America, about one-tenth of one percent of our population is apparently "at war", while the rest of us go on with lives unaffected...except (of course) for the immeasurable costs of waging those "wars".
The Americans have spent trillions of dollars prosecuting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with; as far as Canada is concerned, our acquiescence, support, military commitment, and billions spent propping-up the increasingly despotic Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai. Just days after thousands turned-out in Ottawa and many Canadian cities to mark the passing of Canada's last World War I veteran; I too grieve with the parents of our Afghan war dead who wonder if their sacrifices have been in vain?
The folly in Afghanistan now ranks as the longest war in the history of the United-States; with the Iraq imbroglio a not too distant second. In hindsight it seems all that money spent - (not to mention the lives ruined or lost) - could have been far better targeted on nuclear disarmament, the security of our North American continent, and the gathering of intelligence on the radicals who wish harm against us; then a summit of leaders trying to put that Genie back in a bottle!
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