Coincidence? I think not.

Earlier this week, Canada got its shorts in a knot because of a comment made by U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates. He said that NATO forces - including Canada, Britain and Holland - were sending soldiers into Afghanistan without sufficient knowledge of how to fight a guerrilla insurgency. So a couple of days later Gates' press secretary recanted and said it had all been a misunderstanding - of course the U.S. appreciated the Allies' efforts in combating terrorism.

This morning it appears that a Canadian manual has been leaked to the media that names Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. and Israel as sites of torture worldwide. Now the Canadians are saying that those sites were wrongly named - our many, many apologies, America.

All this makes me wish that once - just once - countries would come out and say what they really mean. It's no secret to Canadians that the U.S. thinks our military is a joke - and, until the Afghanistan conflict, we made our share of jokes at our military's expense too, regarding our outdated equipment and lack of funding. But in my opinion for the U.S. Defence Minister to come out and say, "You suck at combat," should have either been followed up with "... and here's how we propose to help," or, "You know what? Send your guys home. You've lost enough soldiers in an unwinnable war."

Either one of those would have been far preferable to me over, "Oh no, you're doing just fine. Proceed to die as usual."

I don't get that. I just don't.

And I think it was about time that a nation - any nation - came out and called the U.S. and Israel on the carpet for practicing the same abusive interrogation techniques that the U.S. criticizes in others. The fact that no one was particularly surprised by the manual that came out should speak volumes: Yes, you countries are torturing people for your own ends. You can justify it, because no one is willing to stand up to you.

But no. Now we have to issue a retraction too. So it's like that Christmas dinner party, where everyone smiles thin-lipped smiles, and no one talks about the major issues facing the family.

That's healthy.

Wouldn't a little more truth in politics be a welcome thing? How can we possibly alienate each other any more? Can't we stop worrying about what the "right" thing to say is, and instead think about what we can do to cut through the red tape and get to the heart of the matter?

In my view, the heart of the matter is that trying to impose a Western way of life on any non-western culture is doomed to fail. Taking up arms in someone else's battle is not the same now as it was 50 or 60 years ago. But we also have more information at our disposal than they did 50 or 60 years ago. Surely we should be able to use it to get information in ways that don't require us to torture people.

Perhaps I'm being too simplistic, but it'd be a nice thought.