Sunday, February 10, 2008

Why Europe is not Coming to Help in Afghanistan

The Sun's Eric Margolis gives us some great incite into the European version of the war in Afghanistan.

7 Months ago I wrote a blogpost on some of the reasons we can't win in Afghanistan. That particular post was preceeded by many others I've written.

Today The Sun publishes an article outlining why Europeans won't be running to our aid any time soon in Afghanistan.

If I were Stephane Dion, I would certainly be willing to fight an election on Afghanistan. I might even utilize some of Eric's research to help inform the Canadian public a little better about what the realities of "winning" a war in Afghanistan truly are.

I've said it before - if we want to win anything in Afghanistan, we're about 100,000 troops shy. Not 1,000 but 100,000. Got that Peter MacKay? 100K.

Viet Nam did exactly that to get rid of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Go all in and get out fast. Mind you, as Margolis points out, there's 40 million Pushtan to beat in Afghanistan, so our brut force would have to be even larger than the committment VN made in Cambodia.

2 comments:

susansmith said...

I very much liked the end of Eric's article in the Sun - evoking conscription and sending their own sons, if we must win at "all costs."
But this won't happen, because they aren't really into it at "all costs."
Simply for me, if I don't want my own children to enlist, than why would I think that this is the right thing for anyone else to do? Therefore, I suggest they get out now, why waste more Canadian lives, and from what I have seen many more Afghanistan lives. Time to give it a rest, and try diplomacy.

MississaugaJoan said...

Eric Margolis is my only must-read every Sunday.

His archived columns can be found on his website...

http://www.ericmargolis.com/archives.php

I hope to pick up his book on Afghanistan this week.