Canadian soldiers feel the economic pain of Afghans High food costs
Tom Blackwell, National Post Published: Saturday, September 27, 2008
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KANDAHAR CITY, AFGHANISTAN - Just outside the razor-wired gates of Canada's reconstruction team headquarters here, close to 100 Afghan men, women and children waited patiently yesterday in the searing heat.
They showed up in hopes of benefiting from what was happening inside. Most went home empty-handed.
Behind the compound walls, Canadian troops passed out bundles of food to a lucky few in what has become an annual gesture to mark the end of Ramadan, a time when the affluent are supposed to give to those less fortunate.
Yet seven years after the Taliban's downfall and almost three since Canadians arrived in Kandahar, the need seems more acute than ever.
Some of the 200 families invited to receive the gift package said ballooning food costs and a still-decrepit economy had left them destitute.
"Due to the rising prices, life is getting worse rather than better," said Meheraban, 25, who has four children and no job. Like many Afghans, he goes by just one name. "It's very expensive and poor people can hardly afford to buy these things."
A 100-kilogram bag of flour now costs 5,000 Afghanis, about $100, up from 2,000 Afghanis just a year ago, he said. With Eid, the celebration at the end of the holy month, about to begin, his family would likely be forced to panhandle if not for the Canadian gift, Meheraban said.
Yet, it seems the Forces' gesture could not escape other realities of Afghanistan. Meheraban complained that many of those who arrived for the gifts were not actually impoverished, but had used their influence with local administrators to snag invitations.
"Most of the people coming here today were rich people."
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Kandahar governor says 2011 pullout 'leaves us in the lurch'
Tom Blackwell, National Post Published: Monday, September 29, 2008
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- As he readies for a possible Taliban offensive this week with "dozens" of suicide bombers, the new governor of Kandahar province is urging Canadian politicians to rethink the planned 2011 pullout of troops.
In his first full interview with western media since taking over the job last month, Rahmatullah Raufi also described some "worrisome" new trends in insurgent tactics. The Taliban are planting more roadside bombs inside densely populated Kandahar city itself -- rather than in rural areas -- and increasingly targeting government, UN and NGO officials with threats and assassination, he told the National Post.
Mr. Raufi praised Canada's efforts so far and said a multi-year Canadian plan of action for the province could bring about a "huge" improvement.
He politely suggested, however, that withdrawing all troops in less than three years is unwise, given the still-turbulent state of security.
"For Canadians, maybe that is worthwhile for their country," said the governor, a former Afghan National Army general with a reflective, grandfatherly demeanour. "But for Afghanistan, for us, it is not good to say that Canadians should pull out ... It is better not to leave us in the lurch."
In fact, Mr. Raufi said the province needs about 1,500 more foreign troops -- or for Canada to speed up the pace of its counter-insurgency and reconstruction efforts.
At the same time, he also proposed working through influential tribal elders to try to convince Taliban fighters to enter peace negotiations.
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Weak government allows Taleban to prosper in Afghanistan
The collapse of security in Helmand owes as much to government failings as to any military actionTom Coghlan in Lashkar Gar
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The wild-eyed policemen were high on opium, harassing locals and demanding bribes from drivers on the road so recently built at the expense of the British taxpayer.
“I might as well shoot myself in the head,” said one officer, jaw slack and eyes unfocused, as he leant on his Kalashnikov. “We have no life, no salary, and no respect from the people.”
His tattered uniform flapping, he added, with apparent self-loathing: “It is true what people say: the police are the robbers round here.”
The scene illustrated the central problem facing the UK in Helmand province, where 8,000 British troops are trying to impose order. British counter-insurgency doctrine has a single, central objective: to deliver security to the people. Without this, the Taleban and the raft of other challenges cannot be met.
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Researcher says Afghanistan is in disarray
TAYLOR MITCHELL The Moose Jaw Times Herald
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On Sunday afternoon, a forum was held at the Moose Jaw Public Library about Afghanistan.
Besides the candidates for Palliser speaking at the event, the main speaker was John Warnock who is the author of A Failed State: The U.S. and Canada in Afghanistan.
Warnock spoke about what was going on in Afghanistan and what the Caanadian and American governments have been saying.
“Before doing my research, I did not know much about what was going on in Afghanistan,” said Warnock.
Since doing his research Warnock said he has acquired a lot of knowledge about the war in the East.
Warnock said he learned that the U.S. has been in Afghanistan in a massive way since 1979. Almost all the reasons for the U.S. being there have to do with oil, he said.
“Oil in the Middle East is vital to their existence.”
What it all comes down to is the Afghans having no say in what happens to their country, said Warnock. Currently there is a complete failure of the economy.
He added the country doesn’t have a tax program, 40 per cent of the people are unemployed, the average income is $350 a year and 42 per cent are living in extreme poverty with less than $120 a year.
In the past year, there has been a major crop failure and a famine has swept across the country.
Warnock said that the number of casualties has increased. There has been a greater reliance on missiles, planes, helicopters, etc., killing civilians and destroying villages.
It is hard for Canadians to find out what is going on in Afghanistan politics because there is no coverage on it, he said.
Green party Palliser candidate, Larissa Shasko said she believes Canada should be in Afghanistan strictly as peacekeepers, nothing else. Shasko thinks Canada needs to get out of Afghanistan because we are there for the wrong reasons. We need to start supporting the Afghanistan democratic system.
Conservative candidate Ray Boughen had a different view on the troops serving in Afghanistan.
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UPDATE 1-Militants pouring in from Afghanistan: Pakistan
Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:42pm IST By Zeeshan Haider
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RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Militants battling Pakistani forces are getting weapons and reinforcements from Afghanistan, security officials said on Monday, vowing no let-up in their offensive in the northwest.
Government forces launched an offensive in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border in August after years of complaints from U.S. and Afghan officials that Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan were getting help from Pakistani border areas such as Bajaur.
Now the tables have turned and the militants locked in heavy fighting with Pakistani forces are getting help from the Afghan side of the border, officials said.
"The Pakistan-Afghan border is porous and is now causing trouble for us in Bajaur," a senior security source in the military told a news briefing.
"Now movement is taking place to Pakistan from Afghanistan," said the official, who along with a colleague at the briefing, declined to be identified.
The officials did not blame the Afghan government for sending militants across the border but called on Kabul and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan forces to stop the flow.
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Caffeine injection
Legion fundraiser brings Tim Hortons to Canadian troops in Afghanistan
September 29, 2008 Vik Kirsch Mercury Staff GUELPH
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Gord Odell is fed up with war. A Second World War veteran who served as an army non-commissioned officer in Europe, he saw enough devastation to last a lifetime.
"I've had enough," Odell said Saturday as he staffed a local Royal Canadian Legion booth in the Stone Road Mall.
The Legion was raising money over the weekend to give Canadian soldiers Tim Hortons coffee breaks. Afghanistan's Kandahar Airfield has a Tim Hortons on the base.
Odell's thoughts turned to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's vow to withdraw Canadian troops from the fighting by 2011.
"I support bringing them home by 2011," Odell said. "They'll have done their jobs by then. It's time for somebody else to take over."
With the Canadian death toll approaching 100, Legion member Ken Sleeper said while 2011 isn't too far away, he'd prefer a shorter wait.
While the troops are doing "some good," Sleeper said any benefit to the indigenous population is "at the cost of -- the lives of -- our own people."
"We've now lost 97 troops so far, and that's not good," he said, adding that's a high death ratio, even by Second World War comparisons.
Legion member Amber Holman also doesn't want to wait until 2011 and risk seeing the death count rise any further.
"It would be nice for them to come home sooner," Holman said.
But Legion member Roy Wakefield doesn't want a set deadline.
"They're there for a mission," said Wakefield, a former commissioned officer with the sea cadets. He added he'd only support a date of 2011 "if they can get that mission over with by then.
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