World of opinion
On Pakistan’s journalist slaying:
Censorship in a very blunt form is being practised in Pakistan. It includes torture and death. Saleem Shahzad, who reported on links between his country’s military and terrorists, is the latest to be brutally censored.
?If journalists are going to stand up to this form of censorship, they will need the support of Pakistani government authorities in investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the abduction and death of Shahzad. And democratic countries, including Canada, should impress on Pakistan the importance of upholding the freedom of the press to report without fear of death.
The body of Shahzad, a father of three, was found with 17 wounds, including deep gashes, from a beating that caused his broken ribs to pierce his lungs. …
In the country that claimed ignorance of the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s presence in a military town for several years, journalists who dare probe the intelligence-terror nexus are paying with their lives. Shahzad is the 15th journalist to be killed in Pakistan in all probability because of his work since the 2002 murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York. In none of those killings, except Pearl’s, was anyone prosecuted.
The bravery of Shahzad and some of his colleagues in Pakistan deserves mention. …
A commission of inquiry into Shahzad’s murder has been set up by the government. This case is a chance to end the culture of impunity, and to confront the extremists in Pakistan’s military, and the damage they are inflicting on the country and region.
The Globe and Mail, Toronto
On U.S. debt ceiling:
The deadline for raising the U.S. debt ceiling is approaching. The Treasury says it will be unable to meet all its obligations after August 2. Legislators must agree some days before that to allow a law to be written and passed. The consequences of failing to raise the ceiling would be grave. Republicans and Democrats should curb their ambitions for this settlement, make a deal that gives something to both sides and postpone broader negotiations until later.
The main sticking-point up to now has been the Republicans’ refusal to raise taxes. This is an indefensible position. However, there are signs of movement. Influential GOP figures have begun to suggest that they are open to raising modest additional revenues, so long as tax rates do not rise.
The White House has such a plan. …
Looking farther ahead, revenues and spending must both be on the table. It would be marvelous if a balanced, medium-term plan for fiscal consolidation could emerge from the talks but this looks unlikely, and the consequences of failing to agree are too serious to contemplate. A temporary pact with modest spending cuts and revenue increases could pacify aggrieved supporters on both sides without doing much harm to the weak recovery — no triumph, but better than failing to avoid default.
A “grand bargain” on fiscal policy — comprehensive reform of taxes and entitlements — cannot be postponed forever. But the debt-ceiling debate is the wrong context for that discussion. Time is too short and the risks are just too high.
Financial Times, London
On Russia’s military:
The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!
And, no, we’re not talking about Canadian director Norman Jewison’s 1966 movie about a Soviet submarine accidentally running aground off the coast of New England.
We’re talking, instead, about Russia’s intentional plan to send a show of force of two army brigades to the High Arctic this summer — a contingent of upwards of 5,000 soldiers — to supposedly protect its vested interests in the contested, mineral-laden wasteland.
And it is Canada’s plan to lay out an unwelcome mat.
As Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan comes to an end — as is being ably reported by Sun Media’s Thane Burnett — Canada’s Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced our quid-pro-quo to the Russian invasion of the Arctic will be an enhanced one-month-long Canadian military exercise involving 1,000 of our soldiers. This is a must-do.
Five against one may seem unfair but we see the other way around, particularly since our Far North sovereignty exercise has been an annual event since Prime Minister Stephen Harper mandated a strong Canadian footprint along our most inhospitable coastline.
In other words, what’s ours is ours, and the message is clear.
We won’t back down. …
Unfortunately for Canada, however, it’s the United Nations that will supposedly rule on the legal claims of Canada, and other polar countries, over who actually holds title to the offshore Arctic territory that supposedly holds 25% of the world’s untapped oil and gas deposits.
The fact Canada rightfully sees the UN as a joke doesn’t help the Canadian cause.
But no one is surrendering yet — not the Russians, and certainly not Canada.
August in the Arctic could be the hottest ever.
The Ottawa Sun