Is MacKay in the running for NATO's top job?

[Spazito]

OTTAWA -- Defence Minister Peter MacKay says NATO should consider all candidates regardless of their nationality for a job he's rumoured to be in the running for: secretary general of the military alliance.

snip

The defence minister touted Canada's 60-year history as a member of NATO and specifically mentioned the work of Canada's former chief of defence staff, Ray Henault, who serves as the Canadian chair of NATO's military committee.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden would lobby NATO to choose MacKay in exchange for giving France control of two commands currently held by Americans.

snip

However, MacKay's recent tough talk after a Russian bomber approached Canadian airspace on the eve of American President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa in February could complicate his candidacy.

more

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090309/nato_mackay_090309/20090309?hub=Canada

Geez, I hope that slimy, backstabbing POS doesn't get it, he will not be good for NATO, imo.

[CHIMO]

1. Hard Question

To reply to.

I don't know if he wants it, but if that is your question, then I don't know.

If we go back a few years, it was Irish Eyes that was running for the position. The only thing that I could make out of that is that it would allow him to prance around. Don't know how much it would have brought him in $$$$.

If we break it down into local politics, then it may be that Harper is trying to remove the old PCs. He may be trying to limit the PC group of the party?

On the other hand, MacKay may be looking for a safe spot if he sees the Conservatives going into a downturn. It doesn't look like Harper is going to increase his control of parliament in a new election. Also we don't know what the GG said to Harper in his last trip with cap in hand.

I don't think that we have to worry about NATO. It is a US organization and is controlled by them. Again just go back to the last appointment to head NATO. It was a right wing person.

So in summary. I don't know.

[Spazito]

3. I don't have a problem with Canada lobbying for the position...

it's just that MacKay shouldn't be the Canadian in the running, imo. When I first read the article, I, too, wondered if this would be harper's way of getting rid of his opposition because, as we already know, MacKay is well versed in betraying anyone who gets in his way.

I don't know why this push by the Cons is happening but, one can be sure, there is a hidden agenda in there somewhere.

[glarius]

11. These Conservative bastards (including MacKay)

are the worst possible representatives of Canadian values and attitudes. Since they have been representing us to the world, they have done nothing but portray us as bragging, overbearing, know-it-alls. I can't wait to see the end of the Harper government!!!!

[Prometheus Bound]

2. Apparently it's our No. 1 foreign policy objective. Read this.

Canada's naked international ambition raises hackles
March 7, 2009

When Canada's ministers, diplomats, generals and aides head to London in three weeks for the G20 summit, then to Strasbourg for the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, then to Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas, then to Washington for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, then to Prague for Canada-European Union talks and finally to Maddalena, Italy, for the G8 summit, they will be carrying a single, unified message, guided and directed by the Prime Minister.

No, it is not about fixing the credit and banking crises, even if Canada can claim to be a leader here. Nor does it involve the Afghanistan war, or trade relations, or international justice, or foreign aid.

Sure, these subjects will be pressed by Canada, and will sometimes be the official topic of the meeting, but the Canadians are under orders to have a top priority: the October, 2010, elections for the United Nations Security Council.

"We are under orders to make this the one thing we bring up in every meeting, the first priority at every summit," a ministerial official told me.

A foreign-affairs insider agreed: "We are running this like a campaign to get an Olympics. There will be 192 countries voting and Tuvalu's vote is as important as Russia's, so we need to spend the next two years working on every country, giving them what they want to win their vote."

In fact, there is a detailed plan to use the 2010 Winter Olympics in British Columbia as a central lobbying event for the UN vote, each country attending the Games being assigned a targeted strategy, an intelligence file and a platoon of fluffers.

How does it work? Look at what happened three weeks ago, when Peter Kent, the former TV news anchor who is now Canada's Minister of State for the Americas, made a quiet visit to Guyana. In a meeting with its Foreign Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Mr. Kent announced that Canada had voted for a Guyanese judge, Mohammed Shahabbuddeen, to become a member of the International Criminal Court. In exchange, Ms. Rodrigues-Birkett pledged to give Guyana's 2010 UN vote to Canada rather than Portugal.

Was Judge Shahabbuddeen the best person for the job? Maybe. He's well respected in international circles. But that was not the point. He was precisely good enough to win Canada another vote from a UN member.

more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090307.DOUG07/TPStory/Comment

[Spazito]

4. Very interesting article, thanks for posting it....

After reading it, I am wondering if this "push" for the seat at the Security Council AND for top spot is harper's way of trying to extend the Afghan mission beyond 2011. If Canada were to get those two spots, I would not be surprised to hear the Cons say we have to stay given our 'leadership position' in NATO.

Thanks again for the article as I was unaware of how big the push was.

[CHIMO]

6. Perhaps NATO and The UN

Have something in common.
Wouldn't put it past Harper. His friends) in the US and in Australia have gone.

Israel's iron wall
Binyamin Netanyahu will soon present a narrow, right-wing government to the Israeli Knesset. It is worth pondering a commonality between him and this government's second main force, Avigdor Lieberman. Both have a clearly defined world view. At its core is the belief that the Middle Eastern conflict is in essence the expression of a clash of civilisation between the Judeo-Christian west and Islam. Netanyahu has written books about this, and Lieberman has said it time and again. Neither of them sees the solution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as something that is of any value if detached from the geopolitical configuration as they see it.

How do they envisage the solution? Netanyahu has argued for years that true peace for Israel will be possible only when the Middle East is composed of liberal democracies. Before that, he believes, Israel will have to continue managing the conflict rather than resolving it. For the time being, he argues for something he calls "economic peace", in which Palestinians should be helped to develop economically without achieving sovereignty.

Lieberman's position is more complex than his image as an extreme right-winger implies: he explicitly endorses the two-state solution, but demands a land swap with the Palestinian Authority that would lead to a substantial proportion of Israel's Arab population becoming part of Palestine. He sees this as a necessity because he considers Israeli Arabs to be a long-term security problem. Lieberman, who is likely to be named foreign minister, wants Israel to become part of NATO to cement its status as part of the west.

Netanyahu and Lieberman are deeply influenced by the views of the founder of the right-wing revisionist stream (the Likud's forerunner), Zeev Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky argued that Arabs will never accept Israel as long as they see a chance to defeat it, and that Israel needs to convince the Arab world that it is there to stay through its military might. He called this the "Iron Wall" conception. The question is at what point Israel comes to the conclusion that the Arab world has indeed accepted Israel's existence.

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. If they name him, he'd better not get any ideas about merging NATO with the Warsaw Pact. n/m

[Posteritatis]

7. He'd have to reestablish the Warsaw Pact first; it no longer exists (nt)

[daleo]

8. Harper wants to get rid of a leadership aspirant

But NATO would never go with McKay.

[Prometheus Bound]

9. MacKay out of NATO leadership race

4 hours ago

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay appeared on Sunday to call off his rumored bid for the NATO leadership, ceding crucial US support for the job to Denmark's prime minister.

"I have a tremendous amount of work to do with the Canadian Forces," MacKay was quoted by Canadian media as telling reporters in Brussels, adding he was "very focused on my country."

MacKay's candidacy was reportedly supported by US Vice President Joe Biden as a reward for Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan.

However, on Saturday, an alliance diplomat said the United States would support Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to succeed Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as NATO's top civilian official.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gyZ-hUA_Un2N7DtzsLU98mMYGXJw

[Spazito]

10. LOL, this reminds me of the coverage when Belinda dumped him...

he sounded pathetic and he comes across as pathetic now.