LH:
(grin) from your remarks a few messages above I take it you included Israel as an instigation in which case your 'spading' was the same kind of preparation that you accuse various nations of doing.

I remember the events leading up to the war, and they were Arab mobilization, Arab threats, and Jewish fear. You seem to want to blame Israel for winning, which is not a new attitude. An Israeli writer wrote a very apropos story about it called "Unfair to Goliath". In it he takes your attitude, which might be as tongue in cheek as his given your self-confessed role as agent provacateur above. His character is lamenting poor Goliath who was kayoed by that rotten Jewish so-and-so David. Poor Goliath's children are so said, as their mother says: "Where is our daddy? Has he killed all the Jews yet?"

I'm sure there are several books on the war, and maybe each one has something new to add, but planning and motivation are two separate subjects.

Regarding your observations on gardening implements, I think more in terms of a deck of cards.
The difference between us is that I call a spade a spade, and a heart a heart, a club a club, and a diamond a diamond.
You call a spade a spade, a heart a spade, a club a spade, and a diamond a spade. It must be interesting to play cards with you.

Of course you represent yourself as non-tribal. You are from a multi-cultural society bordering a multi-cultural society. What you are overlooking is that Israel is multi-cultural, and her neighbors are tribal.

As for US military (mis)adventures in Canada, you might appreciate a musical group called The Arrogant Worms. They do a nice Canadian version of "The War of 1812" turning the American "Battle of New Orleans" on its head.

On the other hand, the Canadian way is rather sly, what with Stan Rogers lamenting the unhappy voyage of the Antelope in his brilliant 'Barrett's Privateers' when we know full well that fortunes were made in Halifax by privateering off of American trade in both our early wars. This has cropped up on another thread so I won't belabor the point. Just remember that eventually Canada freed herself from British rule and if she'd accepted the 'help' offered her by the U.S., it all could have happened so much sooner!


Long Live Canada