O Canada!

What a mess the hockey loving people of the country affectionately known as America Junior have made.

Last Thursday, at a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Islanders, a sellout crowd of 21,273 people at the Bell Centre booed the U.S. national anthem.

This was an act worthy of full support until the following night when another sell-out crowd cheered for the “The Star-Spangled Banner” after a recorded statement by Hall of Famer Jean Beliveau (when translated from French it means literally, “stupid hoser”) was played in English and French on the Bell Centre video system asking the attendees to respect the playing of both National Anthems.

What a load of rubbish!

Telling the people in the Bell Centre to respect the national anthem is just another form of censorship. What makes matters worse is the people did as they were told, making them nothing more than a bunch of spineless wimps who don’t know how to stick with their convictions.

What are they, the French? Well they are in Montreal, eh.

Am I angry because they booed the U.S. National Anthem? No, I encourage it because it was an expression of their beliefs.

These people made a stand one night and then made a Ross Perot-like flip-flop of opinion the next day because someone in the NHL told Canadiens President Pierre Boivin to tell a Hall of Fame player to tell the fans what to think.

Maybe this is why Canada still bows to an unelected monarch 3,000 miles away. Speaking of controlling a nation from thousands of miles away, what will the United States do after it “liberates” Iraq?

Will President George W. Bush (assuming he remains in office long enough) help rebuild Iraq, or will he simply put in place a weak government that will last a couple years while the United States depletes Iraq of its oil reserves only to be overthrown by a dictator more maniacal than Saddam Hussein, with far worse machinations for future generations to worry about?

Does America really need to liberate the Iraqi people? The Iraqis sending bullets into the flesh of the coalition soldiers must think Saddam is doing something right if they are wiling to fight to keep foreign countries from removing him from power.

Refugees are fleeing the country, but how many of them are leaving to prevent being entrapped in the cross fire?

I am not arguing Saddam is a good leader, but I’m raising the question of how much better is America? Supposedly, America needs to stop Saddam because he is hoarding chemical weapons and weapons of mass destruction, but did he do this because he thinks he needed to defend his people after the United States. and the rest of the United Nations levied heavy sanctions on Iraq crippling its economy.

Iraq is just a one example in a long string of events in which America has intervened in places foreign intervention is not wanted.

The United States has to realize the majority of the world is developed, and we not longer have to speak softly and carry a big stick.

In the future, America needs to intervene only when asked to, but now the United States has made its decision and must continue to commit to its convictions because nothing is worse than losing life for a cause you did not believe in 100 percent.