Tell It Like It Is

I have written nothing about the Iranian missile that brought down the Ukrainian flight, frankly because I don't know what to say beyond the fact that it is an immense tragedy, not only due to the loss of life but because of who was killed: primarily young people with their entire lives ahead of them, and young people who were immensely talented, many PhD students, researchers and doctors. We will never know what they could have achieved, both for themselves and for the world.

What is clear, however, is the fact that Donald Trump has much blood on his hands. Had he not assassinated an Iranian citizen on sovereign soil, the Iranians would not have been on high alert and mistaken the doomed flight for an incoming missile. That the Psychopath-in-Chief feels no responsibility or remorse is a given here.

Canada's response to Trump's responsibility, of course, has been non-existent, so if we want some honest dialogue about this terrible event, we could do far worse than scanning the letter-writers' page in The Star:

For now, U.S. President Donald Trump’s vanity project — taking out Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani — has cost the lives of scores of Iranian mourners killed in a stampede at the general’s funeral, and scores of foreign nationals killed in a plane crash while desperately fleeing Tehran.

The only thing this self-serving president cares less about than Iranian lives is the lives of Iranian Canadians.

There is no room in Trump’s personal world view for effective diplomacy. Having turned Soleimani to smouldering ashes, he was too immature to remain quiet about it, but crowed and gloated, even as millions of grief-stricken mourners flooded the streets of Iran.

Trump may well be re-elected, such is the powerful pseudo-intimacy between him and his adoring followers.

Having said that, I understand Trump’s skepticism about handing back billions to the current Iranian regime, which clearly had a long shopping list of terror-related activities.

It is time now to reinstate a better version of the Iran nuclear pullback, or for Canada to quit the region entirely.

Ron Charach, Toronto

Three things are important to note on this crisis in the Middle East with Iran and the US.

One, U.S. President Donald Trump does not take ownership (or blame) for bringing the crisis to a head, but instead blames the Iranians and the late Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Two, Trump has had his face slapped by the retaliatory missile strikes by Iran. He will not like this and inside it makes him feel humiliated and insecure. (My guess is that this personal response by him has been kept hidden.) He will be left surly, vindictive and unforgiving toward the Iranians.

Three, Trump will not abandon his goal of containing Iran and trying to prevent them from having nuclear weapons. Whether this is realistically attainable or not is another question.

Chaos, confusion, uncertainty, lack of clarity, worry and emotion, and nothing solved — once again the results of Trump’s actions. Both sides now know the other can strike with missiles.

Through all of this we must wonder, how come the U.S. defensive equipment did not knock down the Iranian missiles? Was the range too short for response, was the equipment even in place? Was all this puffery?

Norm Ferguson, Richmond Hill

It is often said that talk is cheap. I beg to differ. Had talk substituted for Trump's pathetic, impulsive and deranged behaviour, many, many people would still be alive today.

Nice Beard Though

As a Canadian, there are a number of things that cause me to feel ashamed: here in Ontario, it was the election of the dumb demagogue Doug Ford, while federally it has to do with my many fellow citizens who believe the government propaganda that we can have our climate-change cake (more pipelines, more tarsands} and eat it too (bitumen extraction as a way to afford reducing our emissions!)

But given current events, most cringe-worthy for me is the absence of a Canadian response to Donald Trump's latest effort to destabilize the Middle East through the assassination of Qassem Soleimani. While few would argue that the general was not responsible for much death and mayhem, his killing at the hands of Donald Trump will likely have far-reaching implications.

Yet despite that, only silence from Mr. Trudeau.

Contrast that with the fact that even a right-wing government like Boris Johnson's is now speaking out, this time over Trump saying he will target cultural sites in Iran if the latter retaliates for the murder:

Britain’s foreign secretary has said that targeting cultural sites in Iran would breach international warfare conventions in an implicit rebuke to Donald Trump for threatening to bomb protected heritage sites.

Dominic Raab did not criticise the US president directly over his threats, but said: “We have been very clear that cultural sites are protected under international law and we would expect that to be respected.”

Trump’s comments amount to threatening a war crime because such action would violate international treaties that the US has signed up to.

The director general of Unesco, which lists 24 protected sites in Iran, highlighted that both the US and Iran were also signatories to a 1972 convention prohibiting states from taking “any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly the cultural and natural heritage” of other states.

The UN security council also passed a unanimous resolution in 2017 condemning the destruction of heritage sites following attacks by Isis, including on the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and on the Mosul Museum in Iraq.

Canada's craven and submissive silence should not be a source of pride for anyone. If history teaches us anything, appeasement never works.

But in other news, Trudeau has a nice beard, eh?