"We will never give up, we will never back down, and we will never be defeated". Interesting words from George. We'll come back to them in a moment.
But first, from the same speech George promises 'freedom to all the peoples of the world'. This is intruiging in itself. For what does George, or Tony for that matter, mean by 'freedom'?
Does it mean having elected officials who will represent the best interests of their consituents? Can't mean that, for that's not often the case.
Does he mean freedom from debt while achieving a higher standard of living? Can't mean that, because we don't have it.
Does he mean freedom in the sense that it is one person, one vote? Can't mean that because the 'votes' of funded lobby's mean more than yours or mine.
What is this 'freedom' of which he speaks then?
Does it mean the security of walking the streets at night in safety. Can't possibly be that because that's not the case in 99.9% of cities who number themselves among those in 'free countries'.
Does it mean freedom of trade and commerce, with equitable profit passed from owners or stockholders right down to the consumers? No.
One suspects that George means the freedom to sit, almost disenfranchised, to develop a sense of well-being, especially throughout the lower levels of society.
A freedom to 'trust' our leaders, regardless of whatever evidence might exist that proves their incompetence.
A MacDonalds and a Taco Belle in every village, hamlet, town and city in the world perhaps.
That might be Georges' 'freedom'.
Inco is in the northern Ontario town of Sudbury. t would be hard to imagine a more inhospitable place, a town with little at all to recommend tourism other than the 'Big Nickel'. That, by the way, is a gigantic nickel coin which greets you as you enter the place.
What Sudbury has is INCO, and little else, and what INCO has, is the most nickel in the world. That mine pumps out mega-tonnes of that metal a year, and markets have become dependent on the continuing production of the stuff.
The price of nickel has jumped more than $600Cn a tonne over the past few days, because the 'Stinko' miners, as they are locally known, are threatening a strike.
Personally, I can't fault them. It's among their 'freedoms'.
But back to George and his committment to spreading the Western Way. It is an indicator of the American economy that the President has committed the nation to another 'Cold War'. A war in which there can be no winner, and one maintained for nothing other than a myriad of economic reasons. It is ominous to think that we, once again, are facing a diplomatic and economic situation which depends entirely on conflict, and refusals to compromise.
While we're here, let me show you this path through the garden...