Exciting news on the Canada beat, as our neighbors to the north are going to blow stuff up in Washington, DC:
The Taliban will attack an Afghan village set up in the heart of Washington courtesy of the Canadian Forces, who will send in a medic in a dramatic effort to save a civilian crippled by the explosion.
At least four times over two days this month, simulated IED blasts will bring the Afghan war — and Canada’s combat role in Kandahar home to Americans if an elaborate scheme based on modern training realism attracts widespread attention, as is hoped.
In other Canada news, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper just took the interesting step of appointing a new Ambassador to the US, Manitoba Prime Minister Gary Doer. This is noteworthy because Doer is not a Conservative. Instead, he’s head of the Provincial branch of Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party. This is perhaps tied in with some intrigue at the federal level, where the center-left Liberals are trying to topple Harper’s minority government and force a new election. This is forcing the Conservatives into a kind of tactical cooperation with the federal NDP, but neither really wants to admit this is happening.