Afstan and the fact-challenged NDP

A letter of mine in the Globe and Mail (full text subscriber only):

Feeding the NDP

MARK COLLINS

March 25, 2008

Ottawa -- In your article Tories Knew 1,000 French Troops Were Pledged Before Manley Recommended Them, MP Asserts (front page, March 24), NDP defence critic Dawn Black says "there is no way of knowing yet whether the American troops sent to Kandahar will work under NATO command or remain part of the U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom." Well, yes, there is a way.

According to an Agence France-Presse story on March 18, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit - the soldiers who have been arriving in Kandahar - will "work under the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force." And Marine Corps News reported on March 15 that "this deployment is in support and under the command of NATO's [ISAF]." Does that help?

The last sentence is the Globe's; this is what I wrote:

But I guess the NDP's defence spokeswoman doesn't bother to follow the media on her subject. After all, facts are irrelevant to NDP positions.

A Norman's Spectator LETTER OF THE DAY. I should have called the Marines "troops", not "soldiers". Sorry about that.