Afghan mission keeps who safe?

Posted on April 11, 2006
Filed Under Politics, News |

CBC News: Afghan mission keeps Canada safe: O’Connor

“Our Canadian Forces are in Afghanistan because it is in our national interest because we have a responsibility to take a leadership role in world affairs, and because Afghanis need us and want us to help them,” O’Connor said.

How is it in our national interest? Afghanistan posed no direct threat to Canada prior to our involvement in its invasion, except for its opium trade. Whether you agree with the policies of the ruling government (the Taleban) or not, that does not give us the Right to take part in occupying a soverign nation. We are there to rebuild because us and our allies (i.e. the US) are the ones that bombed it to require rebuilding. We (the country) are now at threat because we are occupying and inforcing military rule in a nation outside of our own.

Lets say Switzerland, Norway, or South Africa, were the lead occupying military force in Canada. They just brough down an ultra-religious based ruling government that was formed as a grassroots citisen uprising (lets call them Conserviban) against a corrupt government that acted with out regard to laws (lets call them Liberahedeens). Then the Swiss help to create a new government made up of former warlords and Liberahedeens, and its army enforces the new governments rule.

O’Connor said security begins very far from our borders. He said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and attacks in Bali, Madrid and London, made it clear how vulnerable we all are to terrorism. O’Connor asked if Canadians must wait for terrorists to appear in Vancouver, Montreal or Ottawa before the real threat is recognized.

Let’s see… if I don’t poke you in the eye you won’t punch me in the face. If I don’t oppress you and make your family members “collateral damage”, then you won’t fight back with the only means available to you. Period.

So if the Canadian mission to Afgahnistan is truly to keep Canadians safe, then it should be clear cutting all the poppies and replacing them with sustainable agriculture. But the current government officials who are well-known drug lords would never allow that. Update 2006-04-11: In fact, on a CBC The National interview, the Canadian military in Afghanistan has promised not to touch the poppy fields.

“We believe this is an opportunity for the Canadian public to better understand this mission. And I certainly want to start, Mr. Speaker, by echoing the minister’s words about how we support our troops,” Bill Graham said.

Spare me with the spin of equating not supporting a mission with not supporting the troops made to fulfill the mission. That is simple minded.

If Canada wants to better protect itself then the troops sould be redeployed to protecting our waters, in particular the far north. The impact of illegal dumping at sea directly impacts Canada’s water supply, food supply, and economies that are dependent on those. The opening of the Northwest Passage increases this need.

If Canada wants “to take a leadership role in world affairs”, then deploy to Darfur and bring down the Sudanise government that has allowed the geneocide of an estimated 400,000 people, instead of supporting the $3.2billion trade of opium out of Afghanistan.

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