I'm a Canadian with a strong attachment to the United States. I was born in Windsor, across the river from Detroit. My dad worked in the automotive industry, and my mom worked part time in the old Hudson's Dept. store in Detroit. My dad's cousin, another World war II vet, lived in Detroit's suburbs and we visited all the time. I loved Cobo Hall, the big entertainment venue, and watching the Detroit Tigers play in the old Tiger Stadium. So I have great affection for American society and culture.

I am certainly not going to posture and criticize here. We have different societies. For example, the Conservative government here is studying the possibility of overhauling our welfare system and going to what is called a 'guaranteed annual income' by way of a 'negative income tax.' This kind of policy was supported by none other than the arch conservative economist Milton Friedman of the infamous Chicago school. Do you know why? Because the political reality is that the welfare system, in any advanced society, can not be fully eliminated despite populist condemnation of 'lazy welfare bums.' That being the case it only makes sense to make the system as efficient as possible. By eliminating the huge overhead cost of a welfare bureaucracy, of people and buildings and support staff, all those office costs, and replacing all that with one computer system identifying and tracking the entire population and mailing cheques to everyone depending on the state of their income tax returns, the result of this is that the system as a whole SAVES money...the public budget allocated to welfare is either lower or about the same, but more poor people and chronically unemployed are reached by the system and the result is fewer homeless people and a lower burden on emergency medical services which studies have shown are the dumping ground of last resort by desperate people. The welfare system is thereby rationalized and made more efficient. And the taxpayers no longer have to support a cumbersome government administrative apparatus which in itself is just an employment program for social services personnel. Also, the argument by conservative ideologues that a guaranteed annual income would act as a disincentive for people who would otherwise have to work at minimum wage jobs was disproven by people like Professor Milton Friedman, the big conservative kahuna, and others...you see, most people enjoy getting out and working, improving their status, starting businesses, getting promoted, etc. The guaranteed income would be relatively small and anyone with any ambition would not be satisfied with it.  Only a small minority that is dysfunctional in the first place prefers welfare and they will be a burden on the state no matter what...so why not make the whole damn delivery system smarter?

Also, with the continuing evolution of information technology there is no doubt that the population will be micro-chipped, certainly within 20 years, and delivery of most services will be streamlined. The logic of technological development is forcing these kinds of efficiency changes and the number of crazy fundamentalist Christians who would refuse to be micro-chipped is on a steady decline...witness the continuing inroads of gay rights and same sex marriage. These are unstoppable societal trends...so this is the future, certainly in Canada.

Canada is also in the war in Afghanistan. The war is a fucking mess because the Karzai government is pathetically useless and weak, like a crippled feotus with cystic fibrosis, or a mental retard. Ask yourself this...why does a super power like the US with its NATO allies have to help the fucked up Karzai government? Why aren't those people organizing themselves, working hard to beat the Taliban, like the Polish underground army in World War II worked hard at fighting the Nazi war machine? How come these Afghan government bastards just want to steal money, work at the opium drug trade, make deals with criminal warlords, and make phony promises to America about cleaning up their act? How come the Taliban is doing so well WITHOUT the backing of any superpower or alliance of developed countries? Is it maybe because they are tougher, smarter, better organized and better able to stand on their own feet? The US seems to get itself bogged down supporting complete losers, completely corrupt and ineffectual entities, like the South Vietnamese in the 60s and the Afghan government today. And the US has gotten itself into a box...to withdraw or draw down now would send a signal of weakness, that America is soft, can't be counted on as an ally, and the US would lose PRESTIGE. I know this sounds like a stupid macho boy's game, but that's how the man-boys making foreign policy and running countries around the world think. So, here is what will happen. Even if the troop level in Afghanistan is sort of stabilized there is no question that the unmanned aerial vehicle and drone attacks will continue...in the Af-Pak theater. How could it be otherwise? Technology continues to improve...satellites, remote sensing, electronic intercepts, computer processing power, intelligence gathering, the accumulation of humongous databases, datamining...this is America's strength in the fight against terrorists. This will be combined with more skilled American agents becoming fluent in the local languages that the Pashtun and other tribes speak, Urdu in Pakistan, and recruitment of local agents to spy and inform will continue apace. This is the combined strategy for the so-called Long War...can anyone envision a different unfolding of events? Does anyone seriously believe the US can disengage...given that about 47% of the American population, give or take a few percentage points depending on how the economy is going, how well the military executes strategy, etc.,... 47% of the public supports a muscular American foreign policy. And once there is another terrorist attack on American soil, the leftyprotesters can kiss goodbye any momentum that may have been building in the body politic for a radical revision of present policies.

Unfortunately we are stuck on the war course, even though it may be counter productive in that, when a drone attack kills 2 terrorists at the cost of 98 innocent civilians...this provokes the local populations into greater anti-Americanism and a breeding ground for future terrorists is created. But what do you think any conceivable American government's reaction will be to that? Intensification of technology, and hanging tough. How could it be otherwise? You know that if you don't like this exposition, if you are hoping, and even working, for a gentler, greener world, that you are dreaming.  The Obama administration, and every government that will be elected in the future, has to show that it is tough. Too bad for the libbies and progressives...like the White House said: get out of your pyjamas and get real.