Canada's muddled mission

Canada's Muddled Afghan Mission

by Neil Kitson

"...Afghanistan has cost about 80 Canadian lives and a lot of money. There's no end in sight, the Liberals have no discernible position, and the Conservative government says we're there so that little girls can go to school without fear. The truth: the world forgot about Afghanistan after 1989 (apart from the admirable Ottawa Convention), the country is still impoverished, Canadian involvement there is made up on the back of an envelope Rick Hillier got from the Pentagon, and nobody has a clue how to end this disaster."

"...We have recently had a "debate" in the House of Commons about the Afghanistan "mission," a debate conspicuously lacking all the right questions, namely: What are we doing there? What is the goal? Why is it worth Canadian soldiers' lives when other NATO countries don't believe the whole enterprise is worth dying for, whatever that enterprise is? The "debate" is in fact about when "it" will end, whatever "it" is. The Liberals started "it," Harper's pushing "it," Hillier's ready to die for "it," but nobody knows what "it" is."

This is an expert that Harper should listen to.

Afghan citizen and expelled MP Malalai Joya had this to say on rabble.ca.

She is a real expert on Afghanistan, not the people on the cobbled together "bipartisan" panel that issued the Manley report. Funny - Manley ran screaming from a suggestion that he would be nominated as the super-envoy for Afghanistan. Wonder why? Too dangerous for you, John? It's OK for young soldiers, though. Leading from behind, just like Harper.

But would Harper listen to an actual Afghan citizen and elected member of the Afghan parliament? I doubt it. And there's the fact that she's a woman. We all know what Stevie thinks of women.

"The great people of Canada should know that today our people in Afghanistan are not looking at their soldiers as any different from U.S. or other NATO troops. For our people, all of them are the same because, unfortunately, for seven years they have followed the footpath of the U.S. You cannot bring values like democracy and human rights by supporting the sworn enemies of these values."

"...There is no question that Afghanistan needs a helping hand. But our people are now saying, if you do not support or help us, it would be better that you leave Afghanistan so that people here can fight against their enemies who are in power themselves."

"But we don't only want the withdrawal of these foreign troops. We also want the withdrawal of the warlords and the Taliban. We want disarmament of these criminals and we want support for democratic parties."