Afstan: Extending Canadian commitment to 2009
Before MPs vote Wednesday evening, May 17 (note the spin in the Ottawa Citizen's headline), they should read this other article in the Citizen by Arthur Kent, maker of the documentary, Afghanistan: Peacemaking In Progress (full text not online).
On the road to peace: Contrary to popular belief in Canada, the situation in Afghanistan is far from hopeless; an active press is one healthy sign.
Some Canadians -- and too many Canadian politicians -- are overlooking at least one crucial factor in determining our country's approach to Afghanistan: the remarkable progress the Afghan people are already making on the rocky road to peace.
However awkward, these first steps toward reconstruction prove that we're onto a winner with our program of development aid backed by military muscle -- provided we have the courage to see it through...
The key point for Canadians to consider is this: Afghan journalists are now entirely free to report all sides of incidents of this kind. Reporters, and citizens generally, are using their new freedoms to rock the warlords' world. Each time a young Afghan reaches for his or her cellphone, or clicks a keyboard, or commits a thought to hard drive, the Taliban and al-Qaeda lose ground.
More than bullets and bombs or a bad-mouthing by Donald Rumsfeld, this is what causes Osama bin Laden and his followers to lose sleep: the realization that young people are reaching out and touching a future free of violence...
Take Raz Mohammed, for example. I met him in February, 1989, the day after he lost his legs to a Soviet anti-personnel mine. I've kept track of Raz through the years, and now it's not a bitter and broken soul who rolls out to meet me in his wheelchair. It's a war-hardened survivor, a 32-year-old husband, and a beaming father of three strong boys...
Raz says the Western and Afghan government forces battling the Taliban and al-Qaeda should pick up the pace. But he's encouraged to see more NATO countries, including Canada, joining the fight...
Our MPs should also be aware of the commitments of our partners in the Multi-National Brigade in Regional Command (South), which Canada is currently commanding. UK troops are committed for three years, until 2009 (note the detail on the British deployment); Dutch troops are committed for two years, until 2008.
Update: Gerald Caplan, in a letter in the Globe and Mail (Doomed mission, full text not online), claims that the conflict and local disruption necessarily involved in the Canadian Forces' operation in Afghanistan will doom this pointless mission.
I wonder why Dr Caplan thinks it is pointless to support a democratically-elected government in its efforts to resist the return of all-out civil war in Afghanistan--and the possible return to power of a terribly repressive Islamic fundamentalist regime. A regime, one should not forget, that allowed Osama bin Laden to train a great number of terrorists on its territory and also allowed bin Laden to plot the terrorist attack on New York City that killed at least 25 Canadians.
Dr Caplan is a strong advocate of taking action to prevent genocides. I wonder how Dr. Kaplan thinks genocides can be prevented without conflict, and rubbing some locals the wrong way. Or are efforts to prevent genocide also doomed?
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
On the road to peace: Contrary to popular belief in Canada, the situation in Afghanistan is far from hopeless; an active press is one healthy sign.
Some Canadians -- and too many Canadian politicians -- are overlooking at least one crucial factor in determining our country's approach to Afghanistan: the remarkable progress the Afghan people are already making on the rocky road to peace.
However awkward, these first steps toward reconstruction prove that we're onto a winner with our program of development aid backed by military muscle -- provided we have the courage to see it through...
The key point for Canadians to consider is this: Afghan journalists are now entirely free to report all sides of incidents of this kind. Reporters, and citizens generally, are using their new freedoms to rock the warlords' world. Each time a young Afghan reaches for his or her cellphone, or clicks a keyboard, or commits a thought to hard drive, the Taliban and al-Qaeda lose ground.
More than bullets and bombs or a bad-mouthing by Donald Rumsfeld, this is what causes Osama bin Laden and his followers to lose sleep: the realization that young people are reaching out and touching a future free of violence...
Take Raz Mohammed, for example. I met him in February, 1989, the day after he lost his legs to a Soviet anti-personnel mine. I've kept track of Raz through the years, and now it's not a bitter and broken soul who rolls out to meet me in his wheelchair. It's a war-hardened survivor, a 32-year-old husband, and a beaming father of three strong boys...
Raz says the Western and Afghan government forces battling the Taliban and al-Qaeda should pick up the pace. But he's encouraged to see more NATO countries, including Canada, joining the fight...
Our MPs should also be aware of the commitments of our partners in the Multi-National Brigade in Regional Command (South), which Canada is currently commanding. UK troops are committed for three years, until 2009 (note the detail on the British deployment); Dutch troops are committed for two years, until 2008.
Update: Gerald Caplan, in a letter in the Globe and Mail (Doomed mission, full text not online), claims that the conflict and local disruption necessarily involved in the Canadian Forces' operation in Afghanistan will doom this pointless mission.
I wonder why Dr Caplan thinks it is pointless to support a democratically-elected government in its efforts to resist the return of all-out civil war in Afghanistan--and the possible return to power of a terribly repressive Islamic fundamentalist regime. A regime, one should not forget, that allowed Osama bin Laden to train a great number of terrorists on its territory and also allowed bin Laden to plot the terrorist attack on New York City that killed at least 25 Canadians.
Dr Caplan is a strong advocate of taking action to prevent genocides. I wonder how Dr. Kaplan thinks genocides can be prevented without conflict, and rubbing some locals the wrong way. Or are efforts to prevent genocide also doomed?
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 8:31 a.m.
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