The Afghan Question
As we move into a new year - one that promises to be extremely interesting on the Canadian political front - it's time we ask some serious questions about this country's goals with regards to the conflict in Afghanistan. If our goal is to offer up the lives of brave Canadian soldiers while not affecting the situation there in the least - then I say we're doing a hell of a job.
Hopefully that's not our goal.
If a country takes the extreme step of going to war, then that country has to know just what the hell it is trying to accomplish. Canada knew what the goal was in WW11, they knew what the goal was in WW1. They were turf wars - you win the ground, eventually you win the war. No such situation exists in Afghanistan. Turf doesn't exist. In fact, our troops rarely get to fight at all. They move around the country, chasing an invisible and cowardly enemy, and hope to hell they don't drive over an IED. This isn't about turf, it isn't about changing a political regime. It's guerrilla warfare, and the guerrillas hold all the cards. The British couldn't beat the Afghans in the 19th century, the Russians couldn't beat them in the 20th. Nothing has changed in the 21st.
To make matters worse, we're trying to prop up a government that's so corrupt it would look right at home in Illinois. Dexter Filkins of the New York Times recently described the current regime thusly -
“Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.”
And our soldiers are fighting for this? Isn't it time for posturing jackasses like Peter McKay and Puddn'head Harper to either identify our goals there OR bring the troops home? Or maybe they have decided that the Canadian casualty rate is "acceptable". If George W. Bush had concentrated on the Afghan situation after 9/11 - instead of spending hundreds of billions in Iraq - then Canada would not have to be there today. Dubya, of course, will be heading back to his pretend ranch in Texas in a couple weeks.
Our troops will still be in Afghanistan. And nothing about that situation is pretend.
Hopefully that's not our goal.
If a country takes the extreme step of going to war, then that country has to know just what the hell it is trying to accomplish. Canada knew what the goal was in WW11, they knew what the goal was in WW1. They were turf wars - you win the ground, eventually you win the war. No such situation exists in Afghanistan. Turf doesn't exist. In fact, our troops rarely get to fight at all. They move around the country, chasing an invisible and cowardly enemy, and hope to hell they don't drive over an IED. This isn't about turf, it isn't about changing a political regime. It's guerrilla warfare, and the guerrillas hold all the cards. The British couldn't beat the Afghans in the 19th century, the Russians couldn't beat them in the 20th. Nothing has changed in the 21st.
To make matters worse, we're trying to prop up a government that's so corrupt it would look right at home in Illinois. Dexter Filkins of the New York Times recently described the current regime thusly -
“Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it.”
And our soldiers are fighting for this? Isn't it time for posturing jackasses like Peter McKay and Puddn'head Harper to either identify our goals there OR bring the troops home? Or maybe they have decided that the Canadian casualty rate is "acceptable". If George W. Bush had concentrated on the Afghan situation after 9/11 - instead of spending hundreds of billions in Iraq - then Canada would not have to be there today. Dubya, of course, will be heading back to his pretend ranch in Texas in a couple weeks.
Our troops will still be in Afghanistan. And nothing about that situation is pretend.
posted by Brad Smith at
9:55 AM
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