Posted on 04/12/2007 5:09:59 AM PDT by Heartofsong83
Where is Afghan mission heading?
Canada should demilitarize the mission as much as possible, seek political reconciliation with the Taliban and stop blaming Pakistan for the insurgency
Apr 12, 2007 04:30 AM Haroon Siddiqui
What are Canadian soldiers dying for in Afghanistan? The official answer is that (a) they are there so that terrorists don't come here, though the reverse is more likely, and (b) our troops are helping the Afghans get back on their feet.
The more realistic answer is that (a) Gen. Rick Hillier wanted to prove to the Americans that Canada belonged in the big league, and (b) his first boss, Paul Martin, wanted to please the White House, and, his second, Stephen Harper, is ideologically committed to the failed global doctrine of U.S. President George W. Bush.
While Ottawa talks about its 3-D approach (development, democracy and diplomacy), our Afghan mission has been characterized, in the words of one analyst, by 3-Gs (guns, guards and gates), as we copy America's failed military tactics.
The tableau we see in our media tells all: barefooted Afghans in rags staring stone-faced at the increasingly Americanized Canadian soldier in fatigues, bulletproof vest and helmet, and carrying a ferocious looking gun, finger on the trigger.
There's no escaping the imperial inequality of that equation, no matter how polite the Canadians, which they invariably are.
The vulnerability of the Afghans is reinforced by NATO air bombings, 2,000 last year, which killed about 4,000 people.
The war is against the Taliban but it is the civilians who also get killed, maimed and displaced and who do not have hospital care, drinking water and food, let alone employment.
The best-paying, and the most readily available jobs for the army of the young unemployed, at $10 a day, are on the Taliban payroll, bankrolled by the $4-billion-a-year opium economy.
Compare that to the $2 a day doled out at the few development projects, on which the United States spends only a tenth of what it does on guns and bombs, while Canada does only marginally better, spending a third of our military outlays.
The counter-argument – that we cannot do the good deeds until we establish peace – is weak. Afghanistan did have peace, thanks to the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, of which Canada was a proud part.
But the allies have pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory, just as in Iraq.
There are other parallels.
As in Iraq, brutal military tactics, combined with racist disregard for the lives and the religious and cultural mores of the occupied, have alienated the people Canada ostensibly wants to save.
As in Iraq, insurgent-occupied towns are won militarily, only to be lost later.
In some ways, the Afghan situation is worse. The puppet regime in Kabul is more corrupt and more loathed than the one in Baghdad.
Yet there's a Dutch contingent in south-central Afghanistan that is not waiting for peace to break out before trying the non-military approach.
"We are not here to fight the Taliban; we are here to make the Taliban irrelevant," its commander, Col. Hans van Griesven, told The New York Times.
Avoiding combat and ensuring no harm to civilians, his 2,000 troops have been repairing hospitals, schools and mosques. They have not suffered a single casualty in nine months in an area also controlled by the Taliban.
What should Canada do?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization cannot possibly kill all the Taliban. So, demilitarize the mission as much as possible. Say so, to send a signal.
Look for political reconciliation.
Even Hamid Karzai has now admitted that he has been talking to elements of the Taliban. We excoriated NDP Leader Jack Layton for suggesting just that.
Stop blaming neighbouring Pakistan. It is not the real problem, any more than Syria and Iran are in Iraq.
Pakistan admits there are hundreds of thousands of Taliban sympathizers among the millions of Pushtun tribesmen straddling the Afghan-Pakistan border, nearly 300,000 of whom criss-cross it every day. Pakistan also admits there are Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan.
But it cannot squish them all. It tried and failed. It lost 700 soldiers, twice the allied casualties in Afghanistan. It still deploys nearly 80,000 troops along the border, twice the NATO deployment across it.
Talk to Pakistan. No peace is possible in Afghanistan without Pakistan's full co-operation.
Distinguish between Al Qaeda, which has a global jihadist mission, and the Taliban movement, whose nationalist aims are much more limited.
Lean on Karzai to come up with a timetable to fire corrupt officials, especially the warlords he cohabits with.
Buy off the entire opium crop, at market price plus. That will be a small price to pay to shut down the Taliban money machine.
Here at home, Harper should talk to Canadians, nearly two-thirds of whom want a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan, according to a poll.
Yet Harper is emulating Bush: questioning the patriotism of his critics; claiming victory in a war that's almost lost; and having himself photographed with the troops, while having them muddle along in Afghanistan.
Rather than following the American tactics, we should be trying to find a Canadian way out of Afghanistan.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haroon Siddiqui, the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, appears Thursday and Sunday.
“Canada should demilitarize the mission as much as possible, seek political reconciliation with the Taliban and stop blaming Pakistan for the insurgency.”
Stopped reading after this.
This isn’t even thinly veiled.
And to think there are elements in our government that want to create this “North American Union”...
I would just assume without any hesitation to NOT be a part of that Union...I like ours just the way it is...
Well, sort of the way it is...It could use a good flushing out of a few bad apples...
He should just be deported to Afghanistan if he liked it so much under the Taliban...
Taliban spokesperson...
On the spot reporter...
He’d fit right in...
Just look at the name of the editor or writer in this
case. That tells you all you need to know.
The toronto star is probably worse than the ottawa citizen..
but it is pretty pathetic also.
If these sick left leaning secular progressive newspapers
had it their way we’d be in big trouble.
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