Sunday, July 8, 2007

Afghanistan: NO, we're not winning the Hearts & Minds

Today, CTV reports interesting commentary from the Afghanistan member of the Senlis Council.

He's says we need a new initiative over there and that our money is almost invisible. Not to mention children dying of starvation. And Josee Verner confirms that we spent another $39 million over there. That's $69 million I heard of this week alone.

Oh, and did I mention another four Canadians were injured? We have lost sight of what our mission was and where it is going.

3 comments:

Red Tory said...

The Senlis Council reports are grim reading indeed.

JimBobby said...

I seen a newspaper quotin' Jimmy Flaherty. He said that we're there to fight for western values. Huh? We're fightin' fer a warlord-ruled narco-state that has enshrined Shari'a law into its new constitution and is officially named The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Canadian values? Under NEW Afghan law, anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity is subject to the death penalty.

Canadian values? Since the ouster of the Taliban and the beginning of the NATO campaign, Afghanistan has become the world's top producer of opium. The country we're dyin' fer supplies 90% of the world opium market.

Canadian values? The Afghan Human Rights Commission says it has no ability to monitor the treatment of detainees. Serious, credible allegations of torture exist but our gummint sluffs it off an' passes the buck to the ineffective Afghan human rights group.

We are not there to support Canadian values. We are there to support warlords, opium dealers and the double-dealin' Karzai who admits to being involved in secret talks with the Taliban for the same months when 50+ Canajun soldiers was killed. I wonder what they been talkin' about.

JimBobby

jo said...

What's vital about the Senlis report is that they point out the link between the poverty of the Afghan people, and the poppy eradication policy that leaders insist on sticking to despite its spectacular failure. Since when does reconstructing a country involve depriving its most vulnerable of their only income by destroying their crops? Since when does running a counter-insurgency involve bombing civilians with families who become not too happy with foreign forces? It seems to me that our troops AND people in rural Afghan could do with a more practical approach like the poppy for medicine project that Senlis suggests - here's the link to the report: http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/documents/poppy_medicine_technical_dossier