Across the pond, they've taken notice

The lead story in Sunday's online edition of the London Daily Mail is a sharp rebuke of the way the UK honours its fallen soldiers upon their repatriation from Afghanistan. The article lauds Canada for the way it honours her fallen. Both the government and the ordinary citizens of my home and native land do it with class. It should be noted that 82 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan in the past six years.

Meanwhile, nineteen American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the past six days. Can you hear the crickets chirping? South of the 49th parallel, the fixation has been on what is being reflected in a certain chickenhawk's sunglasses. It's rather like a national Rorschach test, isn't it? Personally, I see a hand holding the neck of a fiddle, with flames dancing in the background.