After 2011 - Why Canada Needs to Leave Afghanistan
March 31, 2010
At the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting, held at Gatineau, March 29-30, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the assembled media and delegates that Canada will end its combat role in Afghanistan in 2011, despite Hillary Clinton's appeal for Canada to stay.
By talking about the end of the combat role Harper has, however, kept the door open for a continued presence of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, to train the Afghan army and police, to provide other logistical support for NATO forces, etc.
This is a sleight of hand, designed to mislead the Canadian people, the majority of whom want to end Canada's combat role now. We have heard this argument from Harper before. In 2008, the Conservatives said that we would not stay until 2011, unless there was a change in the nature of the mission. The mission didn't change and the troops stayed.
Foreign troops are considered as occupation forces by the Afghan population. No matter what the role post-2011, Canada will still be working to support an occupation that has created poverty and misery for the vast majority of the Afghan people. How Canada supports that occupation is not the question. Simply by being there, Canada helps legitimize both the NATO mission and the corrupt Afghan Government.
Not surprisingly, the G8 discussions side-stepped the real issues facing the Afghan people. So how bad is the situation? Lets take a quick look at some recent stories about life in Afghanistan.
- It was revealed that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali, has not only been funded by the CIA but has also been involved in drug-running, money laundering and rigging the election that brought Hamid back to power in 2009. Canada's role in Kandahar is to extend the control of the Karzai government, which means 141 Canadian soldiers have died to keep this man in power.
Writing of the situation in Kandahar, the Wall Street Journal said, “The Afghan government here has been so weak, predatory and corrupt that more and more Kandaharis have come to view the Taliban as a lesser evil.”
- The Karzai government passed a law providing amnesty for war criminals. Many of these criminals are current parliamentarians who are responsible for the torture, murder and rape of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians during the civil war. Canada has, by its support for Karzai, ensured that these criminals will never be brought to justice.
- The United Nations Human Rights Commission released a report showing that, despite $35 billion spent on “development” and more than $300 billion spent on military operations, human rights are deteriorating and poverty is increasing in Afghanistan. The report highlights the causes of the worsening situation for Afghans and lays the blame at the feet of the corrupt NATO-supported government in Kabul and on NATO itself.
“Patronage, corruption, impunity and over-emphasis on short-term security issues rather than targeted long-term development are exacerbating the already dire poverty affecting more than two-thirds of all Afghans”.
From June 26-27th, the G20 will be meeting in Toronto. Heads of state from the key NATO countries will be present. The peace movement will be there to meet them and call for an end to this increasingly brutal war.
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Canadian Peace Alliance
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phone: 416-588-5555
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