Here you go;
Independent 12 01 07
Noreen Golfman
Blowing in the wind . . .
Between mouthfuls of fruitcake and blissful stretches of catch-up sleep, you couldn’t ignore the war in Afghanistan during the holiday season if you tried. On the one hand, you were given license to let go and savour slow food, idle afternoons, and the constant pleasure of friends and family—in other words, fully appreciate the privileges of life in the West; on the other hand, you were constantly reminded of Our Boys out on patrol or eating reconstituted turkey in the Afghan desert—in other words, invited to feel guilty for not chowing down sand and fighting the war on terror.
Every time you opened a newspaper or listened to the news, especially on the CBC, you were compelled to reach for the tissues. If it wasn’t a story about some poor sod’s legs being blown off then it was an extended interview with some dead soldier’s parents. Indulging in another bite of dark chocolate was somehow more painful this year. Here, have a plate of guilt with your second helping, my dear, and pass the self-reproach.
Amidst all the cranked up sentimentality and the daily barrage of stories from the likes of reporter Christy ‘one of the boys’ Blatchford or Peter ‘not exactly on the front lines’ Mansbridge, The Globe and Mail’s television columnist, John Doyle, dared to question the nature of the coverage. Doyle openly wondered, as is his right and responsibility, what in the world the public broadcaster was doing, let alone his own newspaper, devoting so much maudlin attention to the Canadian troops?
Any time anyone questions the coverage, as Doyle did and as this column is venturing to do, you can practically hear the rage mounting in the neck veins of the
Almost as painful as watching Peter McKay flirt with Condoleezza Rice.
Mobilization Against War and Occupation
Story about Afghanistan women, drought, starvation…
Environment shuffling cabinets is a great distraction
http://www.marxist.ca/content/view/231/45/
The new highway in the fertile Afghan valley is not the road to peace. The road to peace is stopping the destruction, is negotiating, not handing out candy. The road to peace is rebuilding imaginations so that dreams can live, grow and thrive. The road to peace is in coming to sit at the table — not in a drive-by, fast food agenda. The road to peace is a long, winding, and uncertain road that runs through all those Afghan villages. It is not a road we can rebuild and run.
We have a responsibility in Afghanistan, but it’s not a military one. We have a responsibility here, at our own tables, to remember that what we do in the world gathers around other tables; it reflects us. As such, we should gather humbly, thoughtfully and ask for peace.
accepted by much of the public, and one I find to be rather unCanadian - that there is absolutely no room for diplomacy at all with the folks we're shooting at in Afghanistan.
I know hawks all over the country are lining up against the idea of talking to the Taliban, characterizing it as "negotiating with the terrorists" - a capitulation to the inherent evilness in this radical regime... blah blah blah.
And that example leads us directly to the next historical point. The entire military might of the former Soviet Union failed miserably in bringing the Taliban to their knees. Now, so-called "Soviet apologists" as I've been called numerous times in the past would likely argue the Soviets failure can be attribute to the heavy provision of armaments to the Taliban by our good buddy Reagan himself. It must be also pointed out, however, that in the turning of the tables two decades later, so too, has the source of armaments. The Taliban now fights with weapons procurred from the former Soviet Union.
But the point here is this... we're not gonna win this way. And by winning, I mean we're not gonna bring any "democracy" to the people of Afghanistan by pounding the hell out of the closest thing they've ever had to a national liberation movement. We won't acheive this goal partly because shelling the Taliban has only proven to make them stronger... but primarily because only the ultra naive really believe that the imposition of "democracy" in Afghanistan is really the goal of western governments.
Afghanistan's geographical location in relation to land-transport of crude oil was a good portion of the Soviet Union's motive in sinking its military into a quagmire there... and it's certainly the central point of western motivations today. The fact that a such a large number of high profile Canadians fail to see this, particularly the wittier and sharper types like Mercer, is a bit disturbing.
It's quite clear that the Taliban is a fanatical religious regime quite willing to harm its own citizens in order to maintain its grip on power. Who would argue that the Bush administration doesn't also fit that description? And yet no-one's talking about cutting off any recourse for bi-lateral talks with them.
Cutting off all avenues of conflict resolution besides armed fighting is the best way to get ourselves into a mess we can't possibly exit from. And an exit strategy is exactly what Canada needs to be developing for Afghanistan. We risk a VietNam of our own otherwise... and nothing could be more unCanadian than Canada's participation in something like that.
Tim Horton’s
About 2,200 Canadians are serving in Afghanistan, with most based in Kandahar. Since 2002, 26 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan.
dileas
tess