Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 22, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A11 Winnipeg free press comment editor tuesday August 22, 2006 Gerald flood 697-7269 and beyond in Prague everything is possible i had called a Friend in Prague about getting together for lunch. Could we meet next monday that is pos sible he said. I thought this a strange use of language. A possibility is not a certainty. But thinking Back it seems appropriate to this intriguing City. Everything is possible Here. A Friend told me for example that he had had a medical checkup last week and had returned for the results Only to be told that the doctor was not there and no one in the Hospital knew of his existence. Then there is the famous artist in the City whose Long time Lover eventually married his son and who stipulated in his divorce settlement with another wife that she should be paid 500 czech crowns for every Day that they did not set eyes on each other. Here lots of things Are pos sible. Prague has had a Golden summer washed by Sun and warmth. The City has never looked As clean and As wealthy As it now does in the 14 years i have been coming Here. The currency is buoyant exports Are at an All time High there is full employment and never has there been such Bustle. There Are disquieting matters of corruption in government and there is the vexing distributive question of the Well being of czechs who Are seniors or dependent on Public sector jobs in the medical and educational systems. But All in All the czech Republic is Prague has by far the most successful of the Post had a Golden communist summer transitional societies. Washed by the Economy is so Sun and robust that it has warmth. The survived a summer of non existent gov City has Ern ment. In the Gen never looked eral election of Early june the civic As clean and democrats beat by As wealthy a Small margin the As it now incumbent govern ment of the social democrats. The civic democrats led by Mirek Topolanek negotiated sup port from the Christian democrats and the Small Green party but they were still a few votes shy of a majority. And so until this week the social democrats remained in Power and there was no Way out. Now an interim agreement has been cobbled together. The social democrats get to nominate the speaker of the lower House and they will help select a new government six of whose Mem Bers will have no special party designation sort of what David Emerson has now pioneered in Canada. Jiri Paroubek the social Democrat Premier will give up Power to Topolanek though this is Only for now until other matters Are negotiated. And so Topolanek is exultant in his new hold on Power for now. Last week he examined his new office and made the predictable rounds of the Media. It is thought that anything is possible in Prague and there has broken out a delicious sexual scandal around the new prime minister. It is alleged that he has been having an affair with a member of his own legislative caucus. His wife not to be outdone has announced that she will run in the Senate elections in october for a rival party to that of her husband. And so the first question that new prime minister Topolanek was asked in a radio interview this week was did he love his wife his answer was that he liked her. The interviewer persisted have you been unfaithful to her in the last while to which he answered in 27 years of marriage a lot of things happen. The interviewer persisted and poor Topolanek was intent on opening every possible door. He was asked about what he thought of his wife a running for the Senate. Her Campaign he said was a mistake but no doubt her revenge was Sweet. The interviewer jumped in what was the revenge that was Sweet it is inconceivable that Manitoban politicians would Ever get involved in such unseemly things and if they did surely no reporter would Ever ask such searching questions. Not so in Prague. Here it is possible. Clearly the new prime minister is a Man who needs to learn the Noble political Art of verbal avoidance. Or perhaps when he was asked that first probing question about whether he loved his wife he should simply have said it is possible and left it at that. Allen Mills is a professor of politics at the University of Manitoba. The time in Prague time is seven hours ahead of Winnipeg time. Shot at Dawn most Canadian soldiers executed in first world War deserve a Pardon by Patrick h. Brennan d using the first world War More than 300,000 Canadian soldiers served in com Bat. The casualties were numbing ? 60,000 killed and 150,000 wounded Many maimed for life. Another 9,000 were diagnosed with severe stress symptoms including Shell Shock. Trench warfare spoke Only of savagery fear and horror. The Canadian soldiers assess ment of his survival prospects in the trenches was a fatalistic you la die when your numbers those who had been Farmers clerks mechanics and even Mere boys Only months earlier were now soldiers trained ? and expected ? to throw them selves into Battle on an officers order. That most did ? less than one per cent of Canadian soldiers faced serious punishment for breaches of discipline and there were no mutinies ? testifies to a combination of courage Devotion to a cause fear of being shown a Coward and loyalty to comrades. It also Points to the enforcement of strict military discipline. The disciplinary code might have been British but senior Canadian officers interpreted and enforced it. They dealt with actions that under mined the fighting spirit of the Many ? particularly desertion and other manifestations of cowardice ? speedily and severely. Yet Canad an Field courts martial invoked the ultimate penalty ? death by firing squad ? on Only a few dozen occasions. Most of the sentences were commuted but 25 were carried out. The rarity of the death penalty is evidence that even under wartime conditions in a society where the majority accepted Cap ital punishment the crime had to be an extreme one. The Canadian army executed two soldiers for murder ? the remainder for desertion in the the rationale behind not just sanctioning the death penalty ? but occasionally employing it ? was fear that refusal to fight would spread like an epidemic if it was not nipped in the Bud. Shoot a malefactor pour encourager Les autres As the saying went. Yet in this world gone mad where deaths ? ran Dom and planned ? were commonplace ? and the need for Iron but fair discipline was broadly accepted in the ranks ? the judicial execution of a Canadian Soldier by his own army left a bitter taste. After All the men who daily put themselves in harms Way were volunteers ? conscripts Only reached the Canadian corps in the autumn of 1918. They a freely enlisted knowing they might have to die for King Empire and country. Everyone had a breaking Point and knew it. If a volunteers courage was finally found wanting he could to be left in the line endangering the lives of his com rades. But he did to deserve to be killed either. Most Canadian soldiers Felt this Way and their resentment when their sentiments were ignored was probably the Factor most responsible for the aversion of senior officers to carry out executions. The British government has recently announced its intention to Grant Blanket pardons to the 346 sol Diers of the British Empire forces who were executed in the great War. It has Long been known from trial records that Many were suffering from Shell Shock while in other cases the judicial process itself has been questioned. London rightly acknowledges that some of these soldiers were undoubtedly cowards their trials fair and by the standards of the time their penalties justified. Since it is no longer possible to examine individual cases a Blanket Pardon offers a measure of fair Ness to the innocent and their descendants. Pressure to follow suit in Canada will Likely be overwhelming ? most canadians will see it As Long overdue. Everything about the first world War after All is wrapped in dark and tragic myth ? sol Diers were Lions led by donkeys senior Comman Ders callous and incompetent the Slaughter amid the mud and rats endless and futile. The arbitrary execution of a handful of working class men on the authority of their social and economic betters fits this image. That most canadians now consider capital punishment under any conditions uncivilized Only reinforces this View. And certainly no one in the military today would argue that the fail ure to execute cowards undermines other sol Diers fighting Lan. After All Canada like Britain abolished the practice in the interwar years and our soldiers fought just As bravely in its absence during the second world War. Of the 23 executed for desertion seven had records of repeated bad behaviour and seem to have been considered bad apples at least by their commanding officers which of course is not quite the same As being one. A further three had had ear Lier death sentences for desertion commuted and two More including one of the former deserted but seem to have been executed More As exam Ples after a spate of desertions or commutations for same. Finally 10 give some evidence of having broken Down after a period of acceptable or even outstanding service though Only two of them raised loss of nerve in their own defence. Most of the Canadian trials seem to have been fair Given the circumstances with witnesses unavailable and sometimes dead records incomplete and exhausted and not particularly sympathetic officers administering the process. In defence of the offi cers even military doctors viewed breakdown As a disciplinary rather than medical problem. What should the Canadian government do for All but the murderers a general Pardon would be acceptable ? As Long As it want accompanied by gratuitous disparagement of the army or the offi cers who conscientiously carried out the code of military discipline then in Force. There is enough evidence that Many of those shot simply found themselves in unbearable circumstances and could no longer Cope. Most Bear some personal responsibility for their actions and what was done to them was while harsh not a travesty of Justice. It does Call out for closure though. Ninety years on we can afford a measure of compassion and Many of them deserve it. Or. Patrick h. Brennan is an historian who teaches at the University of Calgary and is a fellow at the Cen tre for military and strategic studies. Heads could Roll in israeli probe of War t Al Aviv ? the War of words Over who won the recent bloody confrontation Between Israel and Hezbollah is becoming More and More heated. Its accompanied by an equally heated demand in Israel for an inde pendent investigation into the Circum stances that led to the War. This is not an exceptional demand. On two past occasions ? the 1973 yom Kip Pur War and the 1982 Lebanon War ? prime minis ters Golda Meir and Menachem begin were forced to appoint commissions of inquiry headed by supreme court justices. The recent confrontation with Hezbollah however is different. There is no Victor or vanquished. Hezbollah sup ported by Syria and Iran claimed Victory even before the ceasefire was declared. Their claim was based on the argument that the very fact that they resisted Israel and inflicted heavy losses on the israeli forces is in itself a Vic tory. In contrast Gen. Dan Halutz Israel a chief of general staff told the israeli Cabinet on sunday that Israel won the War by Points not by a . President George w. Bush was More specific. He said that Israel scored a Victory Over Hezbollah. How can Hezbollah claim Victory Bush asked when its Sta Tus As a state within a state was being replaced by the lebanese army nevertheless even the . Now understands that Hezbollah still has a veto Power Over the decisions of lebanese prime minister Fuad Siniora a military political and social Force with in Lebanon. Furthermore the outcome of the War has shown that Hezbollah has improved its ability to resist Israel. This is mainly because of uninterrupted iranian and syrian efforts to resupply Hezbollah with Large quantities of arms and rockets to compensate for the equipment lost in 34 Days of fighting with Israel. According to a report published yesterday in the London based saudi owned arabic daily Al share Al a sat Iran sent to Syria in the last three weeks Large quantities of missiles and rockets for smuggling into Lebanon. This was apparently the purpose of the recent daring israeli raid into Baalbek in Northeast Lebanon. No official details were released by Israel except a Short com Munique that said that All goals were Israel lost one senior officer and two others wounded in the raid. Pri vate sources revealed that the raid destroyed 10 trucks loaded with various types of missiles and that three Hezbollah terrorists were killed and two were taken prisoners. The Broad ramifications of the recent confrontation led Many israeli groups including two separate groups of Reserve soldiers who fought in Lebanon to insist on the appointment of an Independent commission to investigate not Only the decision making process that led to the War but also the preparedness of the reservists. No less important is the entire israeli defence doctrine and the regional implications of the War. It is not a secret that in the last few years Israel based its defence doctrine on its air Power and As a result it neglected ? in budgets and equipment ? the ground forces especially the infantry. The change in emphasis was a result of the fact that since the 1982 War in Lebanon Israel did not have a frontal conflict with any Arab country. Instead Israel confronted two palestinian Intifada has and had to Deal with pales Tinian terrorism and Low level insurgency. This was dealt with very successfully by the air Force. This israeli defence doctrine remained in Force despite the nato experience in Afghanistan that showed that its impossible to detect from the air Taliban terrorists hiding in mountainous caves. The conclusion was that there is absolutely a need for special forces and infantry. Such a lesson would have required a Large infantry operation in South Lebanon sooner than was done. Should the israeli government decide on some kind of investigation it will certainly Deal with the Large quantities of russian made anti tank missiles that were sold last year to Syria and found their Way to Hezbollah. Israel was also surprised by the enormous quantities of iranian and syrian made Short Range missiles in Hezbollah a hands. These rockets Are Small Mobile and can be fired on the run. Such an intelligence Blunder cannot be separated from the broader israeli intelligence capability on Iran. Many israeli observers were shocked by Iran a reckless behaviour and they wonder what it would be like when Iran does have a nuclear shield. Very relevant to the iranian problem is Syria. In the last few Days two israeli ministers ? labours defence minister Amir Peretz and Kadima a internal Security minister Avi Dichter ? recommended the opening of a formal Dia Logue with Syria As a Means of solving the lebanese problem. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign min ister Tripi Livni Are reported to be shocked by these statements. They both oppose any departure from the anti syr Ian policy endorsed by president Bush and former israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Talking to syrian president Bashar Assad at this time Means inviting Syria Back into Lebanon after it was forced to withdraw its forces from Beirut in april 2005. Such an opening to Syria would harm Israel a relations with the moderate Arab regimes in Egypt Jordan saudi Arabia and the persian Gulf countries. Just last week Assad said in a speech to the syr Ian press association that the leaders of the moderate Arab countries Are half he also said he considered the members of the Siniora government in Beirut As collaborators with Israel and the . Sources in the prime ministers office insist that the syrian Issue cannot be part of any investigation especially due to the strategic Alliance that was signed Between Syria and Iran last june. At this stage its impossible to predict what the investigation of the recent confrontation Between Hezbollah and Israel might show. Experience has shown that the political Echelon could be affected. The Agranat commission that investigated the yom kippur War led to the res ignation of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan and eventually brought Menachem begin to Power. The Kahn commission that investigated the massacre of lebanese civil ians during the 1982 War in Lebanon led to the resignation of Ariel Sharon As defence minister in begins Cabinet. Because of these precedents Olmert is making every Effort to limit the prerogatives of any future commission of inquiry. The . Is following with great interest the intense debate in Israel about this subject. The last thing the . Wants at this time is Domestic instability in Israel. Samuel Segev is the free press Middle East correspondent based in Tel Aviv ;