Mooh, I do not know the context in which you claim "Ignatief referring to himself as an American". Can you provide the direct source, (I have only seen it used in Conservative attack ads). I recall saying myself that compared to many world peoples, Canadians are much like Americans. I suspect people could take that out of context, if there was a reason to do so.

Here is some historic perspective, that I am aware of:
After refusing to participate in the second USA invasion of Iraq, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Liberal government announced on October 7, 2001, that Canada would contribute forces to the international force being formed to conduct a campaign against terrorism. Ignatief'did not enter Canadian politics until the 2006 election, four years after Canada's involvement.

"After debate the members of the United Nations through the General Assembly and the Security Council agreed that the United States and the other nations involved were entitled to take action under the United Nations Charter, Chapter 7, Article 51. Action taken was directed against the Taliban, an invading army of students and the de facto government of a part of Afghanistan, and the international terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda that had declared war on the USA and had been nurtured by the Taliban in a symbiotic relationship since 1996.

Before this action the Taliban had been in breach of a number of United Nations Security Council resolutions and United Nations sanctions were in place against them. The government of Afghanistan, recognised by the United Nations and all but three nations, had long sought United Nations assistance to repel the Taliban invaders and the action taken was to provide military assistance to this government while the United Nations Security Council took action to form a new fully representative, multi-ethnic and broad-based Afghan government."

Following a report conducted by former Liberal, John Manly, in March 2008, the Harper Conservative government's motion to extend the military mission into 2011 was approved in a parliamentary vote with the support of the Liberal party. Canada announced that it will withdraw the bulk of its fighting troops from Afghanistan in 2011. In November 2008, Ignatieff was formally declared the interm federal liberal party leader.

The basis of Ignatief's position:
In Ignatief's 2000 book Virtual War he argued for the decisive use of military force against states which massacre its own citizens. This was after he witnessed, first hand, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and Serbia that was halted when NATO warplanes bombed Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian troops without a United Nations Security Council resolution authorization.

in 2001, Ignatieff was made a member of the Canadian-sponsored International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty which published "The Responsibility to Protect". It argued that the international community has a moral imperative to intervene militarily to resolve
humanitarian crises in failed and failing states such as the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo. It also argued that if the United Nations Security Council fails to act, then regional coalitions like NATO, ad hoc coalitions or individual states ought to in its absence. "The Responsibility to Protect", was endorsed by the United Nations and is central to Canada's International Policy Statement put forward by the Liberal government in 2005.

After seeing first hand the killing of the Kurds in Iraq, he initially indicated his personal support for the second Iraq invasion (USA), as many did at the time. He later indicated that the invasion was unwise. BTW, he had no political role at that time.

As to calling Ignatieff "a Bush Toady", (though you have a right to your opinion) it seems, to me, as historically illogical and unfair, as some of the political attack ads are. It seems just as reasonable to align his viewpoints with the Obama administration, (but, I suspect that has less negative impact).

As to his views on conscientious objectors (though I do not know what they are), I suspect if Canadian troops were seeking to avoid service through other countries, one may have a different viewpoint?

I don't know if Ignatieff would be a good Prime Minister, or even has a shot at it. But, I see no good reason to misrepresent him or his views (which seem to be humanitarian in nature)as the cause of everything bad in Canada since 2001.




UN and Afganistan