Canada and bin Laden

[Frank Moher]

Okay, humour me. In part 2 of my backofthebook.ca post about Andrew Coyne, I talk about the possibility that we're in Afghanistan under false pretenses. If bin Laden wasn't behind, 9/11, would we still be justified being there?

[Eric Pettifor]

The only justification for our being there is if a significant majority of Afghans feel that we can help stabilize their country long term. The moment a significant minority, say a third, want us out, we should leave, as the mission will cease to be achievable. It might not seem right if 2/3 support us, but a third is sufficient to make things difficult to impossible. I don't know what figures for support are now, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was already tenuous.

[Marshall]

In her book I is for Infidel, Kathy Gannon raises many excellent questions about Afghanistan, its leadership, the Taliban, and Pakistan (as haven for bin Laden). Her clear-eyed reporting convinced me that Canada should not be involved in the conflict there. Most disappointing, perhaps, is the complete lack of discussion in the media about protecting Canadian resource aspirations in the region.

[Sandeep Chauhan]

I've never agreed with the notion that we're "helping" the people of Afghanistan -- I find it ironic that we can work on other nation's "problems" and do absolutely nothing regarding our own. Of course, I've always been called a buzz kill. But, things aren't as rosy in Afghanistan as we're being led to believe: according to a CBC story filed recently, there are more civilian deaths than are being reported in the news.

I predict that Afghanistan will haunt us just as Vietnam and Iraq do the Americans.

[Sandeep Chauhan]

Please change "on other nation's" to "another nation's" or maybe "it's imperative that we save the rest of the world while we blithely disregard our own problems." The link should remain of course. Stupid internets, you make me lazy.

[Eric Pettifor]

CBC has an interesting 'blurb' (too sparse to call it a story) Canadian soldier found dead at undisclosed Persian Gulf base . This occurred at Camp Mirage. Location? The CBC can't say: "The location of Camp Mirage has been previously reported but cannot be revealed under terms of the Canadian Forces embedding agreement for Canadian media."

This in spite of the fact that the location should probably be regarded as common knowledge, given that if you look it up in wikipedia you'll find a link to a page of map links including a nice google map.

With regard to the larger picture of Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan, if there were a referendum tomorrow on staying or getting out, on what information would we base our decision? Our sources seem to be the government, the military, or an embedded media which cannot even report information that is common knowledge.

While I believe there are circumstances which would support our involvement in the interests of stabilizing the region and doing some good, I really don't have a clue what is going on, especially from the perspective of the people who actually live there. To blindly advocate sustained military intervention in Afghanistan, or indeed anywhere, would be irresponsible. In the absence of credible information I don't think it matters what we might think with regard to rationales or justifications or whatever. We should not support Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan.

At igloo.org they have an interesting overview on embedding in the Canadian military since 9/11. Unfortunately it's in pdf format, but still an interesting read.

[Frank Moher]

It seems to me the CBC has become alarmingly servile in recent years (or perhaps I've just started to notice). I wrote about this last year vis-a-vis the case of the so-called Toronto 18 (now down to five or something):

http://backofthebook.ca/media/2007/03/facts-and-other-dispensable-t...

Linden McIntyre was apparently so grateful to be offered an "exclusive interview" with Mubin Shaikh that he forgot to ask him some rather obvious questions about his motivations. Or, more likely, he understood that if he asked the wrong questions he wouldn't get the next "exclusive" (just as the CBC reporters in Afghanistan will be quickly un-embedded should they stray from their agreements with the military). This could be called the Bob Woodward Syndrome. It's how once-good journalists become government shills, witting or otherwise.

[Eric Pettifor]

While contempt for the Taleban doesn't equal support for international forces, it's certainly better for us than if the Taleban enjoyed wide support.

The open-air theatre audience knows the pain of losing husbands and fathers - when the Taleban came to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan they were brutal and ruthless.

Drama highlights Afghan war crimes

Perhaps we should withdraw our forces and instead send Frank and a company of Canadian theatre people to assist ;)

[Dave O Rama]

Here is a link to a film called Revealed: The Path To War (2008)
http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/revealed_path_to_war.php

"Drawing on the research and reporting of the best-selling book "The Unexpected War" by Janice Gross Stein & Eurgene Lang, 'REVEALED: The Path to War' exposes how Canada found itself on the front lines in Afghanistan.

I recently said on the radio that I was quite disturbed by all the Support The Troops magnets I'm seeing on cars in Canada. I talked about how if we were led to war based on lies then would supporting the troops not mean taking them out of harms way?
I feel that the Support The Troops magnets are just another form of propaganda where supporting the war is disguised as supporting the troops.

I publicly announced on air that if you support the war then don't be a coward and hide behind the concept of supporting the troops. If you support the war then put a sticker on your car that says Support The War!
Otherwise you're just using doublespeak to hide your true agenda.

My sister is a medic in the Canadian Armed Forces. She served a tour of duty in Kandahar last year. I did not want her there and was stressed to the max the whole time she was away. I would have hated losing her over lies. Which is what got her and many Canadians soldiers in that situation.

Support The Troops! Bring them home.
And bring Bush and Cheney to the World Court now!

Also, for years prior to 9/11 I remember there were petitions circulating around calling on the UN and other governments to deal with human rights abuses against women by the Taliban in Afghanistan. These pleas were ignored.
Just for the record.