Paul Cellucci: Canada has let down its old friend

From a speech by the US Ambassador to Canada, given at the Economic Club of Toronto

This war in Iraq is part of a larger effort to remove this terrorist threat from the planet. Let's not forget what James Baker, Secretary of State for President Bush 41, said quite nicely the other day. "I have worked with current US policymakers. I know their hearts. And they have not abandoned one principle that has been part of national foreign policy for more than six decades. It is that the United States fights wars and provides security guarantees at great cost in treasure and blood to protect others and win their freedom; not to gain territory or plunder resources. Cemeteries across Europe testify to this." And there are many Canadians in those cemeteries, as well.

Yet there is disappointment in Washington and in the US that Canada is not supporting us fully. Like Canada, we very much wanted the UN to be a relevant and effective body. But once those efforts failed, we no longer saw things from a multilateral perspective. For us, now, it is much more basic than that. It is about family.

There is no security threat to Canada that the US would not be ready, willing and able to help with. There would be no debate. There would be no hesitation. We would be there for Canada, part of our family. That is why so many in the United States are disappointed and upset that Canada is not fully supporting us now.

We are at war to liberate Iraq, to protect the people of the US and other countries from the devastating impact of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction being used by terrorists or the Iraqi government to kill thousands of innocent civilians. This is a direct security threat to the people of the United States.

That is why we feel so strongly about this and why we are so disappointed that Canada is not fully supporting us.