In my latest National Post column I argue, despite generally opposing efforts to remake the world in our image, that in situations as bad as Syria our common humanity obliges us to act.
On the eve of tomorrow's anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge it's good to see so much remembrance including the outstanding front portion of today's National Post. It was a pivotal Allied victory in the First World War partly for strategic reasons, partly for tactical ones and partly for psychological ones given how bleak things looked in the spring of 1917. It wasn't just important for Canada's sense of nationhood. The First World War, for all its horrors, was a necessary struggle for freedom and it was very important that the Allies won even if the victory was in significant measure squandered over the next two decades.
A reminder as the anniversary approaches that my documentary The Great War Remembered, which tries to explain and also to vindicate the war despite everything, is available free on YouTube.
"Shortly before his death in the 1920s, Mr. [former French Premier Georges] Clemenceau discussed the question of guilt over the [First World] war’s outbreak with a representative of Germany’s Weimar Republic. 'What, in your opinion, will future historians think of this controversial issue?' the representative asked. 'This I do not know,' Mr. Clemenceau replied. 'But I know for certain that they will not say Belgium invaded Germany.'" Letter from David Dear, Edmonton, in Globe & Mail July 23 1996
In my latest National Post column I say the U.S. shouldn't succumb to paralysis through pessimistic analysis on North Korea's nuclear program and lunatic regime.
Our crowdfunding campaign for The Environment: A True Story had an excellent week last week. We're now at very nearly 80% with 13 days to go. So thanks very much to everyone who backed it and everyone who shared and promoted it, including Ezra Levant and The Rebel, Tom Harris of the International Climate Science Coalition and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore. But we're not there yet. I'm keen to get going on the actual documentary, and I'm busy compiling and sorting information and creating the basic storyline. But we still need just over $10,000 to reach our minimum target, which my widget tells me means nearly $850 per day from now until April 16. And we'd really like to get a bit beyond the minimum to help us afford a new camera, a bit more travel for interviews and on-location filming, really good graphics and, well, food on the table between the end of this project and the start of the next one.
So if you've already contributed, many thanks. If you're not in yet, but you want to see common sense and sound science on climate change, please make a pledge today and get us to 80%, 90%, 100% and beyond. And either way, please keep sharing the project.
I know times are tough and people have all sorts of worthy demands on their budget, from looking after their own families to charitable giving to other desirable public policy causes. But in addition to meeting our target, it's important to have a lot of names in the credits to show how many people are fed up with bad policy based on bad science backed by bullying rhetoric. That's why anyone who can put in as little as $1 gets their name in the credits, unless they request anonymity, as a way of standing up for sensible and civil debate on a key issue.
We're heading into the home stretch and it's very gratifying. But we need your help to make it to the finish line.
"We live in a wondrous time in which the strong is weak because of his moral scruples and the weak grows strong because of his audacity." Otto von Bismarck, quoted by Arnold Beichman in National Review January 28, 2002
In my latest National Post column, which made the front page, I say the little yellow ducks waved at anti-corruption protests in Russia, Brazil and elsewhere are dangerous to brittle tyrannies.