Reflections

“I have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us”.

This saying, that goes back to U.S. Admiral Perry during the War of 1812, is growing more relevant with each passing day. Often our own poor decisions, actions, or lack thereof, lead us to defeat, and only we are to blame.

At the end of 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down provisions in a proposal by President Biden to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars of aid and weaponry with which to meet Russian aggression.

Canada was not far behind.

Although Parliament passed a free trade agreement with Ukraine, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and his party voted against the measure, claiming that Canada had no business assisting a country that is so far from its shores. Recalling former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s observations in 1938 that British lads had no business dying to defend a small far away country (Czechoslovakia), Poilievre and the Republican led U.S. House of Representatives played right into the hands of Russian President Putin.

Russia’s interests are glued to destroying Western solidarity one brick at a time and increasing Russia’s global clout.

At year’s end, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another Putin accolade, blocked the European Union’s (EU) proposal to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in aid. He, too, is doing Russia’s bidding, as is newly elected Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. One wonders if newly elected Dutch Prime Minister Geert Wilders will be long in following their lead.

On another front, Canada’s immigration minister announced that Canada will take in Gazan refugees in the new year.

One wonders if the Trudeau government is being advised by people who know their history – the answer seems obvious.

In 1971, Palestinian refugees in Jordan murdered Prime Minister Wasfi Tal and attempted to overthrow then King Hussein. The result was a civil war that Jordanian forces won but that led directly to the birth of Black September, the deadliest Islamic terrorist group of the seventies. 

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were expelled to Lebanon where, in 1982, they were once again driven out, but not before creating Hezbollah leaving a fifth column in the country in the form of the refugees in the camps and in Hezbollah, an Iranian backed terrorist group that controls the southern end of Lebanon up till this day.

In 1990 the PLO supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait that led to the first Gulf War – a factor never far from the minds of citizens of the Gulf States. 

These are some of the reasons why no neighboring Arab states will give a single Palestinian refuge from Gaza. Indeed, Egypt is even building additional walls on its border with Gaza to prevent any inflow.

Don’t get me wrong, 

I sympathize with anyone fleeing death and destruction in search of a better tomorrow. But not when they bring their fight to the receiving country’s shores. Not when they decide not to accept the receiving state’s values and respect its institutions and culture.

Palestinian and pro-Hamas demonstrators have carried out violent demonstrations across Canada, attacking not only Jewish businesses, individuals, and institutions but also attacking churches and vandalizing Christmas decorations all while calling for a Hamas victory which, properly translated, means a global Sharia empire.

Russia and Iran fully back Hamas and Islamic extremism and see it as a way to destroy Western power and institutions and rid the world of such Western values as women’s rights, children’s rights, freedom of religion and choice, freedom of expression, and other values they hold in contempt.

European unity is slowly melting as some leaders seem to prefer Russia as a model for holding on to power than the West that demands free and fair elections and all the other values of liberal democracy. 

Russia and Islamic terrorism are slowly taking over large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa as the West seems asleep at the wheel. The American withdrawal from Syria has left the Iranian crescent of influence intact in that strategic region. Indeed, the current Yemeni Houthi attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea (with the strong support of Iran) is just the latest flexing of geopolitical muscles by Teheran.

The problem with many foreign policy specialists in the West is their desire to make the rest of the world resemble theirs. The time has come to let self-interest run foreign policy rather than a values-based ideology that simply preaches to the choir and doesn’t seem to work against those who use violence and force to meet their objectives. 

The main challenge facing the West is not left versus right, but totalitarianism versus democracy. Common sense rather than platitudes. Strategy rather than tactics. Our objective should be to have our values respected, not liked. Our goals should be to advance our interests not to make others become us.

Real politik, not dreamland.

And unless the West begins to play chess rather than checkers against their foes, the influence of Russia, Iran, and Islamic extremism will continue to expand and challenge the very foundations of Western civilization.

And, in that case, the enemy will have had an excellent ally – us.

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña