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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, August 16, 1988 Editorial Comments PEACEKEEPING A force of some 385 Canadian soldiers has started to arrive on one of the most deadly and dangerous pieces of real estate on the globe: the frontier between Iran and raq. They are a part of a U.N. peacekeeping force from several countries, and their job will be to supervise and observe the U.N. sponsored ceasefire between Iran and Iraq scheduled to start August 20. The Canadian contingent, all professional soldiers, specifically will be in charge of the vital communications for the U.N. peacekeeping force. It is a noble gesture on the part of Canada, a county long associated with peacekeeping between warring sides in many areas of the world. But critics of the Canadian involvement in the Iran- Iraq ceasefire have raised some serious questions about their presence in this war-torn corner of the Middle East. Jack Granatstein, a military historian is quoted in a newspaper article last week as saying it is "absolute in- sanity" to send the Canadians before the ceasefire kicks in on August 20. He argues that Canada should have waited until the ceasefire is in place and holding before we send our troops to attempt to supervise it. He may be right. But when it comes to Iran and Iraq, the date of a ceasefire is immaterial. If one or both of these two bloodthirsty nations decides to get back to fighting, it won't matter a hoot if the ceasefire is signed or not. The danger to the Canadian and other U.N. troops exists now, will exist on August 20 and will continue to exist in three, six and 12 months. } > After all, Iran and Iraq have not been using rubber bullets during the eight year war that has claimed in ex- cess of one million lives. No indeed, they have used chemicals, missiles of all makes and description. But mostly they have used human beings for the cannon fod- | der: regular soldeirs, religious zealots promised a place | DA Aad. A. dn dh uit adi odie alia ssiiibsaiibe atid of wl A des. diet Ah. odie. 2 in heaven if they die in battle, women, teen-agers, and according to some published reports, even children. One seriously has to wonder about the wisdom of sending Canadian troops and others between these two international cut=throats, who don't agree on who started the war, let alone whether it can end with a negotiated settlement. Iran, already is demanding that the United Nations brand Iraq the aggressor. Hardly a healthy cli- mate in which to start negotiations for a permanent end to hostilities The risks are obvious and large. This may well be the most dangerous peacekeeping mission Canada has ev- ern embarked on, and we've been in a few hot spots over the years. But what are we to do, turn our backs because it's ri- sky? Hardly. We have been asked to serve and we will. Canadian soldiers have never ducked tough military as- signments in the past, and despite the risk, it is no time to start now. We wish them luck. They may need it. Port Perry 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO Phone 985-7383 P.0.Box90 LOB 1NO J. PETER HVIDSTEN Member of the Publisher Canadian Community Newspaper Association Advertising and Ontario Community Newspaper Association. Manager Published every Tuesday by the | 8 ELLAND Port Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario. Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for cash | CATHY LL Fe payment of postage in cash. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 O\AN Com x ant "un » (Qs ® y oy, wi 2APias as305 © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver- tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. | Rate: In Canada $20.00 per year. Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50° Chatterbox y Cathy Olliffe THE HIGHWAY DUCK He's a wiley one, that highway duck. | want to take his picture, see. And it seems like every time | drive by his favourite haunt with my camera, he's not there. But as soon as | drive by camera-less, there he is. The rascal. Oh, he's smart, allright. He must be smart if he has hung around Highway 7A all this time without getting smucked by a passing car. Maybe you know what duck I'm talking about. It's a weird-looking thing, sort of resembling a female Mallard--but he's real big, and real cocky, and he hangs out on the north side of Highway 7A, right in front of the big green barn with the yellow house--between the Causeway Esso station and Blackstock. Unless | have my camera with me, we see the highway duck every morning and every night on the way to and from work. He doesn't do much, Just waddles back and forth along the shoulder of the road, looking down at the gravel like there's something real interesting going on. Cars don't seem to frighten him at all, and even when a big transport truck goes by he doesn't look up. His feathers get ruffled a bit, but he doesn't move. We (me, Doug, and Val from the advertising department) spend much time trying to figure out just what this duck is up to. We figure maybe he's a government traffic inspector, or a radar detectiion decoy, or maybe a reincar- nated prospector who keeps searching for gold in the quartz at the side of 7A. Who knows, maybe he's just hitching for a ride out of this heatwave--but he hasn't got a ride yet because he hasn't got a thumb to stick out. It must be prety tough sticking out one webbed foot and holding up a sign "Destination Yellowknife" at the same time. Whatever he's doing, it sure looks interest- ing. Why else would he spend so much time hanging out beside a busy highway? Anyways, next time you're heading out to Blackstock, keep your eyes peeled for this crazy duck--and if you can figure out what he's doing there, give me a call. I'd like to know. Speaking of ducks, | got bit by a parrot the other day. A real sound chomp on the old in- dex finger. Nasty bird. Drew blood. On the same day, our well ran dry. | was in the shower with a head full of conditioner when the darn thing abruptly dribbled to a stop. | then had to boil drinking water on the stove to rinse the rest of the stuff off. Cost us 45 bucks to have it filled up. My husband yelled at me a lot for spending the money. "We can get along without water," he said, completely serious. Yeah, well we may have to do without water if it doesn't soon rain. And | mean really rain. Like for a week solid. The ground is so dry it's cracked and wrinkled like those babes' faces on Qil of Olay commercials. One day | butted a cigarette out in a crack, and it just disappeared. Probably wound up in Australia. Our lawn wasn't doing too bad until my hus- band cut the grass. Now it looks like a field of Slaw, and feels just about as good on the eet. Anyways, the same day our well dried up, and | got bit by a parrot, it rained. For about an hour. The onlly rain of the whole day, and | got stuck in the middle of it. With my luck, it's a wonder | didn't get struck by lightning. Speaking of lightning, and the power of God and such, reminds me of all the fooferah sur- rounding Martin Scorsese's new picture, The Last Temptation of Christ. Sounds like a must-see flick, if for no other reason than to find out what all this controver- sy is all about. | can't believe that church group in the States that offered something like $12 million to buy dhe film and all prints--so they could be urned. | mean, come on fellahs, there's cheaper fire fodder around than that movie. Heck, if it's ob- scene burnables they want, why not pop out to the nearest variety store, pick up some dirty magazines, roll 'em up into logs, and burn 'em? Betcha the smoke would smell a lot less than the smoke caused by buming celluloid. And why pay $12 million for fire fodder, when they could give the cash to the poor, the homeless, or Jimmy Swaggart? Honestly, the way that man carries on, you'd think he was dirt poor living on skid row. Course, that's where he probably belongs, af- ter that shady affair he had. Actually, | can't be- lieve he still has the nerve to ask for money, after being caught with his pants down (so-to- speak). And speaking of speaking, have you real- ized yet that I'm at a complete loss for a col- umn idea? It's the dog days of August, for sure, and all | wanna do is hang out down at the beach. With that highway duck. Full circle, folks. Ain't life grand? NC EERE LE CY: TTT EERE