Canada Is Peaceful - But For How Long?

Via at-Largely: the First Global Peace Index Ranks 121 Countries.

"The first study to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness and the drivers that create and sustain their peace was launched today. The Global Peace Index studied 121 countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe.

The rankings show that even among the G8 countries there are significant differences in peacefulness: While Japan was the most peaceful of the G8 countries, at a rank of five in the Index, Russia neared the bottom at number 118. The Global Peace Index also reveals that countries which had a turbulent time for parts of the twentieth century, such as Ireland and Germany, have emerged as peace leaders in the 21st century.

The Economist Intelligence Unit measured countries' peacefulness based on wide range of indicators - 24 in all - including ease of access to "weapons of minor destruction" (guns, small explosives), military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.

After compiling the Index, the researchers examined it for patterns in order to identify the "drivers" that make for peaceful societies. They found that peaceful countries often shared high levels of democracy and transparency of government, education and material well-being. While the U.S. possesses many of these characteristics, its ranking was brought down by its engagement in warfare and external conflict, as well as high levels of incarceration and homicide. The U.S.'s rank also suffered due to the large share of military expenditure from its GDP, attributed to its status as one of the world's military-diplomatic powers."

And the results are ...

Canada's rank: 8th.
U.S.A's rank: 96th.

So, it looks like Canada is still well in the game of being not only a peaceful country, but a country of peace.

My question is: for how long?

I ask, because of these items:

The Defense Department is asking the Harper government to more than double its annual funding to $36.6-billion by 2025;

Afghanistan mission's future at risk - says Prime Minister Harper;

Prime Minister Harper's preoccupation with the military solution;

Prime Minister Harper's unrealistic expectations about Afghanistan;

Canadian MSM: we need a taliban body count - without it, the Enemy is winning the propaganda war;

Defense Minister O'Connor uses more Bush-Cheney talking points on what defines Canada's mission in Afghanistan as successful;

And last, but not least: highly sensitive information about the religious beliefs, political opinions and even the sex life of Britons travelling to the United States is to be made available to US authorities when the European Commission agrees to a new system of checking passengers. My question is: will this be happening with Canadians as well? Or has this been implemented already without our knowledge?

I wrote previously: "Canada is currently being governed by incompetent people who are more interested in pleasing Bush-Cheney (and related U.S. interests), and thus surrendering our sovereignty in the process, than actually promoting, protecting and serving the interests of Canada (...) Therefore, look again at their record so far and then try to imagine how much they can further "accomplish" in another year hence - or two, or even more ..."

Scary thoughts, eh?