And when the Taliban come back to power and make it a crime to teach girls and young women anything, including how to read?
He does not allow comments so I thought I would comment here. First what the hell is this right wing dweeb doing on the Progressive Bloggers list? Hmmm. Oh yes he is a Liberal.
Now that I got that off my chest, this is clearly the same messaging we get from the Harper Government.
I have already commented here and here on the myth that we are in this war as a campaign of Womens Liberation. But to reiterate for Sir Robert a couple of points.
The Taliban are not the only problem, the regional War Lords and ex Taliban that make up the Karzai government have also attacked women, and girls schools.
That Kandahar is a porous region with the Taliban operating with impunity out of southern Pakistan, with support of the SSI the Pakistani secret police.
The Pakistan government made a peace agreement with the Taliban in the North West this week.
They assasinated the leader of the autonomy movement in Baluchistan an area in Southern Pakistan that borders Afghanistan in order to destabilize that area, and in collusion with the Taliban are hoping to put down the Baluchistan opposition. These are our allies.
Women in Afghanistan have been subjected to rape, murder, political assasination, girls schools have been burned not by the Taliban but by the Karzai governments allies.
No capitalist infrastructure exists in Kandahar. No alternative corp production is possible. The opium crops are what are being burned in these operations of search and destroy of the Taliban. Creating localized resistance from villagers, warlords and drug lords, not just the Taliban. These American orchestrated search and destroy missions have failed to win the hearts and minds of the Afghani people in the region.
In Kabul the capitalist structure is non-existant, so much so that there are NO BANKS operating. So even the most basic of a capitalist economy is not present in Afghanistan after five years. Instead funds are doled out by NGO's to the Karzai government who then funds their cronies and pals.
Ex-Taliban are in the Karzai government, so Kabul is very willing to negotiate with the Taliban as it has been with the warlords and druglords.
Kabul is a city state, Afghanistan is a failed state, the Americans abandoned nation building in the rush to Bahgdad. Only now is a sembalence of capitalism begining to take root, and only in Kabul.
Karzai's government is not a secular democratic government, nor a capitalist one, it is an Islamic government. It has renewed the old Taliban Vice and Virtue committee. It has persecuted and imprisoned the editor/publisher of the nations only womens magazine, for blasphamy. It has allowed the Mullahs to order the death of converts to Christianity. It is no different than its predecesor state, except for the troops which guard it and media that whitewash it.
There are 20,000 American troops still in Afghanistan, this was their war, why should be be fighting and dying for them. They left behind a counterinsurgency force to obstensably do two things; hunt for bin Laden, whom they have failed to find, destroy the Taliban leadership, which they have failed to do. The Americans cut and ran from Afghanistan to go into Iraq.
The Brits the Americans allies in Iraq, have refused to deploy 800 combat ready soldiers they promised last spring to NATO. Now who is cutting and running.
German, Italian, Greek components of NATO are in Kabul and will NOT be sent to fight in Kandahar.
Kanadahar was a war mission of the U.S. who demanded NATO become involved in the summer. The summer. Harper sent our troops to be part of this in May. That was when he also called for a vote on hsi open ended two year extension of the mission. A deliberately undefined mission, though he knew well enough he was sending our troops to be canon fodder in the frontlines of Operation Endurning Freedom.
As did Canada's very own Colonel Blimp, General Rick Hillier. He wanted 1000 troops to go and fight to prove we were combat ready, and more than just whimpy liberal peace keeper. Mr. Macho defined the enemy as scumbags. Say no more.
Why Canadians are confused is that between March of this year and May the mission changed. In March a PRT unit of Canadians went to Kandahar obsentisbly to support and defend and infrastructure program. A desperately needed program that had not been provided for five years of U.S. occupation of the province.
Ours was not to be solely a combat mission, it was to be a reconstruction mission.
NATO command is appealing to member countries to contribute to the combat offense and getting no support.
Brig. Gen. David Fraser, future multinational commander, speaks during a press conference Thursday in Ottawa "This mission is about Canadians helping Afghans," Fraser said yesterday as he repeatedly stressed the mission is "not just about combat operations."
But by May that had changed, but the Harpocrites refused then and still refuse to explain why we accepted comand and control of Operation Enduring Freedom and its follow up Operation Medusa. That was NOT our mission in Kandahar. Or at least not the mission as publicly portrayed.
In May when questioned in the house debate over extending the mission for two years the NDP asked Defense Minister O'Connor if we were at War. He refused to anwser.
The mission in Afghanistan is NOT UN sanctioned it is an American campaign, Operation Enduring Freedom, which was their own operation. NATO who joined after the war in Afghanistan, has set its mission as being the defense of Kabul.
That was our original mission until the Harper Government put our troops in harms way by moving from Kabul to Kandahar and involving us in Operation Enduring Freedom.
2000 Canadians are being used by American and NATO forces as we were in Dunkrik and Dieppe to fight and die while the Imperial powers hide behind us.
Neither the Americans, NATO nor Karzai can say if this extended combat operation in Kandahar will be a success. What we do know is that since the spring as combat operations in Kandahar increased so has domestic insurgency, suicide bombings, riots, and a re-armed Taliban counter offensive. Karzai even admits that the situation has gone from bad to worse.
We have every right to remove our troops as we have had to involve them in this combat operation.The response of the NDP parliamentary Caucus to the Withdrawl Immediately of our Troops, will be nuanced to include peace making, defense of Kabul, increased support for economic reconstruction. Just watch, we were given a taste of it by Alexa during the convention in her speech at the mike and later discussions with Peter Vandusen of CPAC. This is not cut and run, nor appeasement. It is a challenge to the Harpocrites to explain why our troops are being viewed as expendable in an unwinable combat operation.
I have documented all this and it can be found here: Afghanistan
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