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2006 Parliamentary Debate on AFG Mission

Here's the comments I posted to the CBC website.  I encourage you to do the same.

I fully support the Canadian mission in Afghanistan and I hope that later tonight the vote will be in favour of extending the mission.

The Liberals started the mission when they were in power, sending our troops to Kandahar originally in 2002, to Kabul in 2003, and approved the move from Kabul back to Kandahar in 2005.  All with no debate or vote in Parliament

It is disgusting for them to question and complain about the mission that they started, now that they are out of power.

If we pull our forces out, what message does that send to any other country that might need our help in the future?  That we will run when the going gets tough?

Canadian soldiers are some of the toughest in the world.  It's a shame we have such weak politicians.

--Scott MacDonald | Ajax, Ontario
 
Posted to CBC website

Comfortable??? furnace keeping the house warm? Police car driving down the street on patrol? Thinking about a little vacuuming right after you tell Canadians their role in the world? Ahh..what a typical village Afghan would do to have that peace and security, the comfort and security of a life where political, religious and warlord masters are not demanding a portion of your meager fare and adherence to strict doctrine, or you pay with your life. Child sick? Pray...cause that's all you got. You North Americans with your NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude, are really hard to stomach. You claim to want to be helping, but all you can do is putter around at self serving intellectual tidbits to "show" how enlightened you are...pitiful. The moment we go to help you criticize it, but won't lift a finger prior to or during to help anyone but yourself. At least have the decency to learn the issues, take a good look at the people other than what a 1/2 hour documentary on CBC showed you and then if you really are bursting with a comment...sit VERY still for a little while..the feeling will go away..hopefully
:cdn:
 
I'm watching the question period right now, and not even 5 minutes ago (typing now due to Rant i started giving Tele 5 minutes prior) I heard some Liberal MP going on about the international funding were providing to Afghanistan and how much was going to Kandahar where "ALL" of Canada's troops are stationed.......i nearly threw my clicker through the Tele, does he just have a lapse of memory of all the other places our people are over there....like the firebase that Pte. Costal was killed.....or is he just that arrogant and misinformed....

Caleix
 
and as to GAPs post....that there is what really mess's me up...people thinking were pullin out cause we've got the taste of blood!

Caleix
 
Caleix said:
I have this sick feeling in my gut that if we pull out of Afghanistan now rather then stay and help the country reach a point where it can safely stand on its own, that other countries will think Canada and its armed forces won't go the distance. I'd like to know what everyone else thinks...so if you could post your views on this it'd be much appreciated...

Caleix

My whole reason for starting this thread.....

It kinda reminds me of the joke we used to have about guys who would be in theatre for a little over a month and then get sent home because of personal issues they kept secret from the Chain of Command..... "Operation Reel Me In Honey"......  Then some poor bastard would get sent over on 2 days notice because of the individual not having their S**T together.

I'd really hate to see and would be very embarrassed/disgusted if this nation caused something like that at an international level...... Question is, who is the poor bastard that would have to replace us.
 
i'm not too sure....because doesn't every NATO country already have some sort of a Task Force in Afghanistan?

Caleix
 
Ah, the wonders of the internet and email. Took just ten minutes to email every single MP in my province to urge them to vote in favour of the extension. Hope everyone else does the same.....
 
My contribution to the CBC; let's see if they publish it:

"Afstan is not George Bush's mess. It is the UN's. The UN Security Council has repeatedly and unanimously endorsed both NATO ISAF and US Operation Enduring Freedom, most recently through Resolution 1659 (2006) and Resolution 1623 (2005). In light of this UN mandate surely Canadians should support the effort enthusiastically.

It is noteworthy that the following countries are making substantial troop contributions to NATO ISAF: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands. Are they Bush's poodles?

Our forces in Regional Command (South) are indeed now under US Operation Enduring Freedom.  However they are scheduled to transfer to NATO ISAF command (under a British general) on July 31.

Since the overthrow of the the Taliban in 2001 some 3.5 million Afghan refugees have returned home from abroad.  To my mind that is an indication that things are indeed getting better there.  It is Canada's duty to stay there (along with the more than 30 countries contributing to ISAF) to ensure: a) that no return of the Taliban takes place; and b) that the reconstruction of Afghan society can continue successfully.

The Liberals know what the current mission entails; they sent the troops there.  All the  government is now proposing is to continue the same/same mission for two years.  Liberals need no new information in order to vote in favour of the continuation.  And Liberals who do not so vote will be acting out of pure political opportunism."

Mark
Ottawa
 
me personally, i think we should stay to show that Canada has some guts, but of course it's going to be no to many dead as much as I hate a dead comarade i believe we should stay and help.
 
Speaking of the Polaris Institute: on "CBC News: Today from Toronto", just before 1300 EDT, Peggy Mason of the Polaris Institute had a lengthy interview with Nancy Wilson in which Ms Mason expressed her opposition to the Canadian Forces' mission in Afghanistan. The fact that the Insitute is rather, shall we say leftish, was naturally not mentioned.

One of her key points was that our forces are now under US Operation Enduring Freedom (true) and that we don't know when they will transfer to NATO control. Totally false. The transfer is scheduled for July 31.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=667782006&source=somnia

If Ms Mason does not know this simple fact she has no business commenting on Afghanistan, or else she is dissembling. And the ditzy host, Nancy Wilson, should have known enough (good luck!) about the subject to call Ms Mason on her misrepresentation.

Sadly, this is all too typical of the sort of "journalism" one has come to expect from the CBC.

Mark
Ottawa
 
MarkOttawa said:
If Ms Mason does not know this simple fact she has no business commenting on Afghanistan, or else she is dissembling. And the ditzy host, Nancy Wilson, should have known enough (good luck!) about the subject to call Ms Mason on her misrepresentation.

Sadly, this is all too typical of the sort of "journalism" one has come to expect from the CBC.
No need to have actors 're enact' on This Hour has 22 Minutes, if we can see the real thing.  ;D
 
Just one reason why we need to finish what we've started.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-16T141233Z_01_ISL278847_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-VIOLENCE.xml&archived=False

>:(
 
Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Afghan schoolgirls attacked, six wounded
Tue May 16, 2006 10:12 AM ET



By Tahir Atmar

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban insurgents tossed a crude bomb into an Afghan girls' classroom, wounding a teacher and five students, a headmaster and police said on Tuesday.

Taliban have launched numerous attacks on schools as part of an intensified insurgency that has produced some of the worst levels of violence since the end of Taliban rule in 2001.

Headmaster Gul Mohammad said a small bomb was thrown through a window into a girls' class at his school, in the Chamtol district of the northern province of Balkh, on Monday.

A teacher was seriously wounded and five girls were slightly hurt with burns in the attack, he said.

Another school in the district was burned down early on Tuesday after its guards were beaten up, police said.

"The Taliban are behind this," said district police chief Mohammad Hashim, referring to both attacks.

The militants attack schools as symbols of the Western-backed government and foreign influence. Seven children were killed when a rocket hit a school in an eastern town last month.

The Taliban were ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 after refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

But nearly five years later, their insurgency shows no sign of ending.

AIR STRIKE, OFFICIALS BEHEADED

Violence has surged in recent months and more than 500 people have been killed this year.

The unrest comes as NATO members are sending reinforcements to boost their peacekeeping force from 9,000 to 16,000.

With about 23,000 troops, the United States now has its largest force in Afghanistan since its military involvement began in October 2001. The United States had been hoping to trim its Afghan force to 16,500 by early this year.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, U.S.-led forces killed four militants in an air strike in Uruzgan province in the volatile south, the U.S. military said.

"The extremists were responsible for launching numerous attacks against civilians and the Afghan National Army," the U.S. military said in a statement.

In other violence, Taliban raided two police posts near the Pakistani border, killing two policemen and wounding six.

A government office in the same area was attacked and a woman in a nearby house was wounded, a Khost provincial police spokesman said.

Security forces later captured 13 suspected Taliban, including some who were burying a body, he said.

In the southern province of Helmand, where British forces are in charge of security, police found the beheaded bodies of two government workers who had gone missing last week.

In Ghazni province, just south of the Kabul, a man had his hands blown off and was blinded when a mine he was planting exploded.

His target was believed to have been a U.S.-funded road project, a provincial security official said.

(Additional reporting by Yousuf Azimy and Kamal Sadaat)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

 
It seems all the radical lefties are coming out of the woodwork brandishing misinformation.

The hope for the passing of the resolution this evening rests on individual MPs of the Liberal Party, who have been told it's a free vote. Let's see if some of them look past their party's interests and take a stand.

That being said, I'm not too hopeful.
 
http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060517/nato_afghan_060517

PM would extend Afghan mission for one year
CTV.ca News Staff

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday he will continue Canada's military mission in Afghanistan for one year if opposition MPs vote down a two-year extension.

"What we would do is proceed cautiously for a year," Harper told the House. "If we have to go further beyond that, we would seek a mandate from the Canadian people."

MPs are currently debating in the Commons whether to support a motion to extend the mission, with a vote expected for this evening.

The Conservative government earlier accused opposition MPs of flip-flopping on whether to prolong Canada's military presence in the war-torn country.

"On Sunday, the foreign affairs critic of the NDP (Alexa McDonough) said it's not a question of should we be in Afghanistan," Harper said during question period. "And yet today, they said they'll vote against it. Maybe if we wait a few days, we'll get a different position."

However, McDonough told Mike Duffy Live she only supports the mission as originally intended by the Liberals.

"We absolutely have commitments to Afghanistan that we have to follow through with, but that's not the same thing as talking about entering into a new mission," she said.

The Bloc Quebecois and the NDP have announced that they will vote against the motion.

Conservative MP Laurie Hawn accused Liberal and NDP members of using the Afghan mission to advance their partisan interests.

"For months the Opposition called for a vote on our role in Afghanistan, and our prime minister has agreed to that vote," Hawn said.

"Opposition members are now playing politics with our mission in Afghanistan. Liberal and NDP members just weeks ago supported this mission."

Liberal leader Bill Graham said Wednesday he would leave it up to his MPs to decide how they wanted to vote.

"We've had a gun put to our heads ... without knowing all the details," Graham told reporters.

"We find this process abusive and strange ... and we will not play politics with this."

Michael Ignatieff, one of the front runners for the Liberal leadership and one of the more bullish supporters of the Afghanistan mission, supported extending the mission during the debate.

"I express unequivocal support for the troops in Afghanistan, for the mission, and also for the renewal of the mission," he said.

Ignatieff argued that Canada must shift from a "peace-keeping paradigm" to one that "combines military, reconstruction and humanitarian efforts together."

However, he said his support was conditional on the mission equally combining these three elements.

UN Peacekeeping

Meanwhile, an Ottawa think tank has slammed the government for "virtually abandoning UN peacekeeping."

In a report released ahead of Wednesday's six-hour Commons debate, the Polaris Institute said Canada had already spent $4.1 billion on Afghan operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Polaris analyst Steven Staples told an Ottawa news conference that Afghanistan accounts for 68 per cent of the $6.1 billion spent on international missions between the fall of 2001 and March 2006.

Staples said operations in the war-torn country were "consuming all available resources" and preventing vital resources being diverted elsewhere, such as in Darfur.

"It's clear that we have virtually abandoned UN peacekeeping today," he told reporters, adding that Canada ranks 50th out of 95 countries currently contributing military personnel to UN missions.

Harper's Conservatives surprised opposition parties when they announced late Monday they would be introducing a motion calling for the Afghan mission to be extended to February 2009.

The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that the government's sudden decision to call a debate and vote was in part because NATO wants Canada to take over command of the entire Afghan mission in 2008.

CTV's Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife told Newsnet that he suspected the government would win, but it was "going to be a very close vote."

"The big news is that the Liberals, who decided to send the troops to Afghanistan in the first place, could switch sides and vote against extending the mission tonight."

Canada has around 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan, with most stationed at Kandahar Airfield on a mission that is scheduled to end in February 2007.

 
I just watched yet another NDP member make an ass of himself ( a former navy officer at that)..........I am embarassed by the NDP
 
If anyone wants to watch the debate live on your PC you can do it here http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&section_id=392&template_id=392&lang=e
 
It's pretty tough to follow the translator so I hope you're bilingual  ;D
 
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