“Exercising our veto would not be in our country’s interests and would damage France-U.S. relations into the long term.” Such are the seemingly reasonable words of a right-wing member of the French parliament.

Here in Canada, too, we are regularly told that our trading ties and long friendship with the U.S. prevent us from expressing our moral opposition to the war. Reason, we are told, dictates that neither individuals nor the country itself can retain their dignity without paying a price, and an unacceptable price at that. We must therefore acquiesce to becoming accomplices to a crime through sheer selfishness — by using the very brand of logic one finds among the terrified inhabitants of neighbourhoods controlled by motorcycle gangs.

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