Dear Condi

SoftPowerFlexin'
Winnipeg, Manitoba

So US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has changed her mind.

Apparently, she has decided to come North and give us a good ol' fashioned dose of her sit-up partner's so-called hard body power.

Unfortunately for her, judging by the following open letter, looks like Ms. Rice sure as heck won't be workin' out on former Canuckistani Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy:

" Dear Condi,

I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more......

I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.

But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.......

......Coming to Ottawa might also expose you to a parliamentary system that has a thing called question period every day, where those in the executive are held accountable by an opposition for their actions, and where demands for public debate on important topics such a missile defence can be made openly.

You might also notice that it's a system in which the governing party's caucus members are not afraid to tell their leader that their constituents don't want to follow the ideological, perhaps teleological, fantasies of Canada's continental co-inhabitant. And that this leader actually listens to such representations.

Your boss did not avail himself of a similar opportunity to visit our House of Commons during his visit, fearing, it seems, that there might be some signs of dissent. He preferred to issue his diktat on missile defence in front of a highly controlled, pre-selected audience.

Such control-freak antics may work in the virtual one-party state that now prevails in Washington. But in Canada we have a residual belief that politicians should be subject to a few checks and balances, an idea that your country once espoused before the days of empire......

These Canadians believe that security can be achieved through well-modulated efforts to protect the rights of people, not just nation-states

To encourage and advance international co-operation on managing the risk of climate change, they believe that we need agreements like Kyoto.

To protect people against international crimes like genocide and ethnic cleansing, they support new institutions like the International Criminal Court -- which, by the way, you might strongly consider using to hold accountable those committing atrocities today in Darfur, Sudan.

And these Canadians believe that the United Nations should indeed be reformed -- beginning with an agreement to get rid of the veto held by the major powers over humanitarian interventions to stop violence and predatory practices.

On this score, you might want to explore the concept of the 'Responsibility to Protect' while you're in Ottawa. It's a Canadian idea born out of the recent experience of Kosovo and informed by the many horrific examples of inhumanity over the last half-century. Many Canadians feel it has a lot more relevance to providing real human security in the world than missile defence ever will"

It's a reasoned and reasonable show of spine that comes not from 'might makes right', but instead from the real and lasting power of a truly representative liberal democracy, which the United States once was, and can become again.

But it will only happen when more American lawmakers themselves get up the gumption to speak truth to naked, ugly hardpower like Mr. Axworthy just did.

Good on you Lloyd.

_____
Update: Axworthy stood his ground and waxed eloquent in an interview with Mary Lou Finlay earlier tonight. Should be up in Real Audio on the AIH website sometime tomorrow.
DSP Update: Interview is here.