People

Please, please leave the poor benighted people of Afghanistan alone. It's their country, their religion and their problem (albeit started by Britain,the Soviets and the U.S. years ago). Just leave them alone, get out NOW! All the so called "do gooders" are literally destroying their country as they did Iraq. Enough is enough. Let them be. We as Canadians have even less reason to be there than anyone else. Our place in the world is as peacekeepers and if there were peace there I would agree that we could help but there is an active war and a hated occupation of which we should have no part. Check your history, no one from outside, NO ONE has ever been able to control that country for any length of time. In the end they always succumb and get booted out covered in blood. We are not wanted there and we should not be participating in the egregious imperialism of the U.S., not now, not ever. We are better people than that, much better!

by Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1271 comments) on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 8:05:29 PM
 

Do not be dismayed ..

I absolutely positively care about the Afghanis.  The idea was not to go there and turn it into a cement parking lot, or worse to firebomb it into glass. There are PEOPLE involved who need to have their needs met.

My point is this: the Canadian leadership in Parliament is totally out to lunch o this "issue". There is no clear direction from them, just confusion -- except for The Harper who is a clear NEOCON in every sense of that word.

The point I am raising is that Canada has legal obligations . and while our NATO commanders are lieing at every turn, it seems to me that the pressure is going to intensify to get more Canadian troops into Afghanistan, probably after the election.which will be soon.

My fear is that Dion will allow this as the war crimes multiply - that's what his handlers are indicating. They are more upset by The Harper allowing an intel breach of where Dion was in Afghanistan and PMO's handling of Dion's visit than they are with developing real, workable plans for Canada to comply with its obligations.  I might point out this is precisely what Llinda McQuaig has warned about, the over riding madness of siding with NATO and the United States, yet now we have Dion doing it, too. This is not traditional Canadian ethos; this is the new Americanization of Canada.

There is NO Canadian press reaction to the biggest story in the US yesterday which was the new orders for 3000 more US troops. I attempted to SHOW here what is going on under the radar, all of which indicates more and certainly not less military presence there.

Canada can either chart its own course in foreign affairs or it doesn't. The world is about to regionalize (no more dollar hegemony AND power on the part of nuclear players) and it was a very sad mistake for Canada to ally so closely with the United States and take on this "Nato commitment" in the first instance.

I could quote you much information on ways Canada props up the American Empire which is about to fall but within the confines of that article (written btw so that Garth Turner would show it to Stephane Dion!!) .. I limited my information and merely stuck to the legal obligations that Canada took on under NATO and Geneva. This MUST be met or we just become another rogue nation in the eyes of the world, a nation NOT complying with the rule of international law. I have tried to outline why that is. Canadian prime ministers are to uphold international law.

We are already in Afghanistan. There are reconstructions required and there are ANGRY, resentful people inside Afghanistan.

The NATO allies of the US are all bailing out .. I came up with a plan that sticks responsibilities onto ALL of them, as well as onto the Afghani leadership -- who plan to coast on outsider money WITHOUT meeting Afghanistan's very real obligations - this is what happens when there is NO PLAN.

NATO agreed to go into war, but dropped their responsibilities and as I"ve pointed out, they are new at this game, but they are ignoring historical precendent.

So NOW what for the Afghanis who have lost so much already??

The BEST possible course is for Canada to show some leadership which would FORCE the Americans to reconsider what their real obligations in all this are. It's not a matter of putting more US troops and black ops in there which is the "Bush solution" while continuing to ignore international obligations.

The goal of Dick Cheney is to balkanize Afghanistan, allow the new oil pipelines in, and keep the drugs pouring out of Kandahar. The US has no other strategic interest; there is no al Qaeda threat there but the ones the US makes (and pays, I might add.)  The Canadian troops are providing cover for British soliders that are protecting the (very lucrative) poppy crop. Bush and Cheney's constituency is DRUGS and ARMS, remember?? same old, same old US policy.

Can you realize how much like Iran Contra this IS?? And Canada is complicit here, and has been, no matter WHAT the Canadian press may indicate.

I am saying this truthfully - it is the Canadian people who must PUSH Canadian leaders; the leaders are gonna stick their heads in the sand and just go for campaign contributions same as ALWAYS if we let them, and more Afghanis will die. So how many more Canadias do we want to see die before this hits the Security Council, as it inevitably must.

I am quite used to being Cassandra, I've been an activist, not a writer, for forty years. I realize this is "shoot the messenger time" once again. But I will repeat this - it will take DECADES to fix this mess that has been created. Time for Canada to come to the realization that getting together with other interested parties, meeting its obligations is both right and necessary.

by ladybroadoak (38 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 391 comments) on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 9:19:26 PM