Harpers War Body Count Reaches 100

3 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, death toll now at 100 and he insists on staying till 2011 three more years of wasted human lives and taxpayers money. To date since Stephen Harper decided to aggresively pursue the use of CanadianArmed Forces as counter insurgency forces in Kandahar 90 Canadian Armed Forces personnel have died.

Canada's role in the invasion of Afghanistan, as an active combatant in operations against the Taliban and other insurgents in southern Afghanistan, has produced the largest number of fatal casualties for any single Canadian military mission since the 25th Canadian Brigade served in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

This does not include non-combatant Canadian civilians who have died in Afghanistan because of Harpers War.

2 Canadian aid workers killed in roadside ambush in Afghanistan

And while lists of Canadians killed in Afghanistan usually include all of the miliatry personnel killed the two aid workers are not always listed as causulties and the first non-government non-military civiilan killed in Afghanistan in July 2006, is always forgotten as a victim of Harpers War....

Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says millions will remember Mike Frastacky, a Vancouver carpenter who returned to their country year after year to build a school for young children, only to be shot.

Remember we are fighting for schools and children especially girls in Afghanistan, but the guy who built them and got killed for it gets forgotten.

Oh the Harpocrsy of it all.

SEE:
Mayor Of Kabul Says Get Out

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Another Failed Surge

Stephen Harper's war is over. His surge has failed. He admits this
with his election declaration that Canada will leave Afghanistan in 2011. So for the next three years we can watch as more Canadians die in a futile counter-insurgency campaign.
Why not leave now. Why not move our forces to protect real development projects like schools, which non-military volunteers who are Canadian have been killed for creating, with no protection from their country.
The failure of the counter-insurgency is no better exposed then the death of the Vancouver volunteer who built a girls school and was murdered by the Taliban for his efforts.

See:

Schools In Afghanistan

Sir Robert Bond Idiot

Afghan Woman Speaks Out

The War For Women's Rights

Democracy In Afghanistan

Where Are The Women?

Afghanistan



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Harpers War Costs More Lives

Harpers War; the body count has increased to 65

And it's a land mine by any other name that killed them. And the reason was that they were traveling in a 'light armoured vehicle' an ATV by any other name.

And as per usual the Afghani killed remains unnamed. As if he was just a bystander in the war.

Nov 19, 2007 05:32 PM

THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL – The family of a Quebec soldier who died in battle in Afghanistan says he was committed to making a difference in this world.

Cpl. Nicolas Raymond Beauchamp, 28, of the 5th Field Ambulance of CFB Valcartier, was killed on Saturday when his light armoured vehicle struck a roadside bomb.

Pte. Michel Levesque, 25, of the Royal 22nd Regiment – also known as the Van Doos – was also killed in the blast, as was an Afghan interpreter.

SEE

Clarification

Harpers Body Count

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Remembrance Day O7

Here is an archive of my war posts for Remembrance Day.
Lest We Forget War is the health of the State.

WWI

Gallipoli And Vimy

Stanway's Sombre Reflection on Somme

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

Merry Christmas, Red Baron

The Vimy Myth

The Best Laid Plans

Royal Newfoundlanders Died For the Seal Hunt

Canada's First Internment Camps

Eugene Debs


Spanish Civil War

Casablanca R Rated

Christy Moore - Viva La Quince Brigada

Kenney is A Funny Guy

The Spanish Revolution & Civil War 1936-1939



WWII

The Horror of Glorifying Bomber Command

Vonnegut, Dresden and Canada

Not MacArthurs Republican Party

The Good Germans


Afghanistan

Mr. Dithers Accidental War

Harpers War Costs Another Canadian Life

The Working Class Dies For Harper

Harper War Monger

Hidden Costs of Harpers War

Never Again, War

Remembrance or Revisionism

Lest We Forget

White Poppies

White Poppy Debate

Draft Dodgers in Dukhbour Country

Support Our PeaceMakers

Rich Man's War

War and the Market State

Humanitarian War

Kenneth Patchen

SOME REMARKS ON WAR SPIRIT

War Resisters Welcome Here

Military Industrial Complex

Celebrate Mothers Day For Peace

Year of the Pig

Job Protection for Canadian Reservists

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Fascism, Vietnam, War, WWI, WWII, SpanishCivilWar, International-Brigades, Rememberance, Rememberance-Day, poppies, Veterans, BoerWar, Canada, warmonger, Bourne, Anti-War, just-war, MacPaps, Conservatives, Harper, NDP,
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Hidden Costs of Harpers War

The Harper government does not release the numbers of Canadians wounded in Kandahar.

Now most injuries not reported

A new policy has clearly emerged. Deaths are still reported but injuries are not, unless one of two scenarios exists. The first is if the injury is so severe, it may very well result in death. The second is if journalists already know about it. If a journalist happens to be in a convoy that is hit and sees the injury, they’ll obviously know about it.

Injuries are increasingly frequent these days. As many as four roadside bomb strikes happen each week. Soldiers are being injured in the process, some of them seriously. Some of them will lose limbs. Others will have their lives irreparably damaged. We won’t know. Whether we should know is another question.

So what’s changed? There is the argument that politicians — fearing a further loss of public support for this mission — don’t want to reveal the true number of injuries. Another school of thought is that the injuries have become so routine, the military doesn’t view them as a “new development” and thus not newsworthy (or publicly releasable). A final argument is that there is now so much violence, the deployed soldiers’ would prefer to reduce the publication of bad news that will further worry their families back in Canada.

As the medevac crew was launched on one medical mission after another, we repeatedly saw Canadian soldiers being loaded and unloaded.

The point is this: soldiers have died in this place, but many more have been injured. The United States, which is engaged in its own largely unpopular war in Iraq, still releases injury statistics. Canada does not.

The long term impact of this war is veterans returning with post combat syndrome. Once upon a time it was called battle fatigue, and those who suffered from it were often summarily executed in the field during WWI. We have come a long way since then. Hardly it remains a hidden injury of war and like other injuries occurring to our troops it is to be covered up from the public according to the Harpocrites.

Nearly 400 of 2,700 Canadian soldiers who have served in Kandahar province might have come home with mental health problems, according to a report by the office responsible for the health of deployed troops.

The heavy toll that the war in Afghanistan has taken on the minds and bodies of Canadian troops has been revealed in data, documents and interviews provided by the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command.

In addition to the 63 Canadian soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan since February 2006, 243 have been wounded, according to the data.

Waiting lists are stretching from a few weeks to months for Manitoba soldiers seeking psychological help, say officials at a Winnipeg clinic.

Referrals from the Canadian Forces are up 78 per cent over last year, officials at the Operational Stress Injury Clinic in Winnipeg said Friday.

Operational Stress, sometimes known as combat stress, is the term used to describe any persistent psychological problem resulting from military service, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

SEE:

Harpers War Costs Another Canadian Life

Kandahar

Afghanistan

War



Job Protection for

Canadian Reservists

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The Dialectics of War

Hegelian dialectics influenced Clausewitz as much as Marx. Both used his historiography as the basis of their analysis.

Clausewitz after 9/11

The Prussian master's brilliant analytical method in On War provides richer insights into the contemporary wars against terrorism than anything his glib critics have come up with.
by James Woudhuysen

Clausewitz thought of war in a framework that included his formula, but went way beyond it. That framework, known as the trinity, is usefully re-translated in Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century by Christopher Bassford, editor of the Clausewitz Home Page (4). In Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century, Bassford has Clausewitz, in the famous final section of chapter one of book one of On War, keeping his theory ‘floating among’ three ‘tendencies’, as ‘among three points of attraction’. The three tendencies from which war is composed are:

1. the blind natural force of primordial violence, hatred and enmity
2. the play of chance and probability, within which the creative spirit is free to roam
3. the element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to pure reason.

Bassford’s direct translation of Clausewitz goes on: ‘The first of these three aspects concerns more the people; the second, more the commander and his army; the third, more the government.’

This passage is vital. Andreas Herberg-Rothe treats his formula’s nuances – war as both a continuation of politics and as involving other means – with the careful thought they deserve in the prologue to Clausewitz’s Puzzle . But Clausewitz revisionists do not stop their vulgarisation of the man with his formula. No: Clausewitz revisionists reveal a much wider crisis in bourgeois thought about war.

Clausewitz’s dialectical method

Clausewitz’s method in relation to military affairs will always remain relevant because of his grasp of the importance of polar opposites, and of change, to the totality of interactions that comprise war. Thus Clausewitz both hated and admired Napoleon. His famous concept of friction defined it as ‘the force that makes the apparently easy so difficult’ . As the British historian Michael Howard likewise pointed out in 1983, Clausewitzian dialectics embraced the relations between means and ends; moral factors and physical forces; historical knowledge and critical judgments made in the field; absolute, or ideal, war and real war; attack and defence, and tactics and strategy . In their different books, Herberg-Rothe and Beatrice Heuser fret, as Germans tend to, that Clausewitzian theory inevitably leads to militarism à la Adolf. But they make an even bigger mistake, again in the manner of modern Germans, when they dismiss the way in which Clausewitz’s theory is underpinned by the dialectical philosophy of Georg Hegel (1770-1831).

In his admirable opening chapter to Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century, ‘Clausewitz and the dialectics of war’, Hew Strachan points out that the vitality and longevity of On War derive ‘in large part from its refusal to embrace fixed conclusions’. In this chapter too, and in the editors’ joint introduction, a long-needed counter-attack is mounted on Mary Kaldor. Back in 1999, her New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era used the Yugoslav conflicts of the 1990s, as well as war in Rwanda, to distinguish between ‘old’ wars, involving nation states and political motives, and ‘new’ ones, which also involved organised crime and large-scale violations of human rights. In Strachan and Herberg-Rothe’s indictment, then, New and Old Wars turned Clausewitz into ‘not the analyst of war, but the representative fall guy for “old wars”’.

What the critics themselves miss out is that Clausewitz, like Marx, pretended to be neither an encyclopaedist nor a Nostradamus. Both men, rather, encouraged people to think carefully, creatively and self-critically about laws of motion, whether they pertained to capital or to war. Indeed Marx himself, so often written off as an economic determinist, had this to say about ‘economics’ and war. War, Marx wrote in his economic notebooks, ‘developed earlier than peace; the way in which certain economic relations such as wage labour, machinery etc develop earlier, owing to war and in the armies etc, than in the interior of bourgeois society. The relation of productive forces and the relations of exchange also especially vivid in the army.’

Although war generally grows out of the dull relations of peaceful political economy, Marx knew that it could have its own effect precisely on those relations. Clausewitz, as Strachan’s book reminds us, was invigorated by the ideas of the German Enlightenment; he ‘knew full well that policy can expand war as well as limit it’. For both men, the dialectical relations of society were the key thing. No picking of holes, or told-you-so reference to posthumous events, can take away from the insights that still follow from applying their method.

The COMPLETE translation by
Colonel J.J. Graham
published by N. Trübner,
London, 1873

Posted to the web by

SEE:

Dialectics, Nature and Science

Commodity Fetish a Definition

Libertarian Dialectics

A Philosophical Dilemma

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Mr. Dithers Accidental War

In a damning indictment of why the Liberals are still dithering over Canada's combat mission in Kandahar, ex-PM Jean Chretien in his new autobiography lays the blame at the feet of Mr. Dithers.

As for Afghanistan, Chretien suggests that Martin is partly to blame for casualties because he "took too long to make up his mind" about Canada's role, and troops ended up being sent "to the killing fields around Kandahar."

Which I have pointed out here and here and here and here.

Martin's Liberal government got us into combat in Kandahar because they were so busy with maintaining their minority government which was about to fall. As Chretien points out our peacekeeping mission in Kabul was over and all that was left for us was IASF support in the 'killing fields of Kandahar" as he called it.

Martin was so focused on his Kelowna legacy, and Dion on his Environmental meeting in Montreal that gosh shucks the troops in Afghanistan were an after thought. Too late we were in an election, and so by dint of dithering our troops were stationed in Kandahar.

However Harper made much of Dithers error and made the war his own. Which is why this accidental combat mission became his cause celebre to create his image as a strong right wing leader.


SEE:

Afghanistan




Job Protection for

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Rogues Gallery

Canadian Ambassadors to the U.S. to decide Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley will head the group, which includes:

• Derek Burney, Canada's former ambassador to Washington and former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney
• Respected broadcaster Pamela Wallin, who was Canadian consul general in New York
• Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Jake Epp
• Paul Tellier, former Clerk of the Privy Council and former president and CEO of Canadian National Railway and Bombardier

• 
  

Talk about an old boys club. Shades of the old Mulroney government.

Manley is a hawk as is Burney, who was brought in by Harper to be his transition guy in the first six months of his government.

Epp was seen as a potential Evangelical Christian candidate for Alliance/Conservative Party leadership!

Jake Epp's distinguished white-haired image flashes onto the evangelical political radar screen. At 61 (the same age as your humble scribe) he is seen as a bridge between the past and present, the Alliance and the Conservatives, the evangelical world and the rest of the body politic.

Epp and Manley are political pals.

The election of the Ontario Liberal Party in 2003 delayed action on the Epp report. The government of Dalton McGuinty appointed Epp to the Ontario Power Generation Review headed by John Manley to examine the future role of Ontario Power Generation (OPG)

As are Wallin and Manley;

In 2001, Wallin, along with then-Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley, was one of the organizers of the "Canada Loves New York" rally for Canadians to show their support after the September 11, 2001 attacks (Manley ran in the New York City Marathon in 2001, a contributing factor to organize the rally). In 2003, Wallin and Senator Jerry Grafstein were honored by the Canadian Society of New York for their ongoing commitment to strengthening the ties between Canada and the United States.

Chain Saw Tellier was responsible for gutting jobs at CN and Bombadier, and in leading the privatization of CN when he was appointed by Mulroney.

And while there are token Liberals on this committee lets not forget the NDP adage; Liberal Tory Same Old Story.

There is a Conservative specter haunting Canada and it is the ghost of Brian Mulroney.

We will now take wagers, will they recommend we stay till 2011, 2014, 2020, or 2050?

Manley remains tight lipped!

Who are the panel members and what have they said about Afghanistan?

John Manley

Lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault firm in Toronto. MP for Ottawa South 1988-2004. Cabinet minister 1993-2003 (Industry, Foreign Affairs, deputy prime minister with special responsibility for national security, then Finance). Ran for Liberal leadership in 2003, but withdrew and endorsed Paul Martin.

"Whenever we asked Afghans what they thought ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force] or Canada should do, they did not hesitate to say we must stay. Without the presence of the international forces, chaos would surely ensue. ... We often seek to define Canada's role in the world. Well, for whatever reason, we have one in Afghanistan. Let's not abandon it too easily. But let's use our hard-earned influence to make sure the job is done."

- October, 2007, issue of Policy Options.

Derek Burney

Chairman of Global CanWest Communications. Former diplomat (ambassador to Korea, Japan and the United States). Chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney 1987-93. Headed Mr. Harper's transition team in 2006.

"Until very recently, Canadians were essentially unaware of the reasons for our involvement in Afghanistan. The initial decision was taken in the immediate wake of 9/11, ostensibly as a commitment against global terrorism. But, when Canada accepted, almost by stealth, a much larger, more risky role more than a year ago to take charge of the multinational force in the volatile Kandahar region, there was little explanation, debate, or leadership at the time. Some suspected that it was meant primarily to help temper U.S. criticism of our decision not to engage in Iraq. Whatever the rationale, a leadership gap became more apparent. Not surprisingly, polls confirmed some confusion and growing apprehension about what we are doing in Afghanistan and why. Canadians may be proud of the role we used to play as blue-bereted peacekeepers but they seemed less certain and less proud of the more dangerous role we are taking on as peacemakers and nation builders."

- April 11, 2006, Arthur Kroeger College Awards Dinner, Ottawa.

Paul Tellier

Director of Alcan Inc. and BCE Inc. Trained as a lawyer. Joined federal civil service in the 1970s and rose to become Clerk of the Privy Council, the country's top civil servant, 1985-1991 under Mr. Mulroney. He left in 1992 when Mr. Mulroney appointed him president and CEO of CN Rail. In 2003, he took a three-year posting as president and CEO of Bombardier.

"Many Americans don't know that Canadian soldiers are fighting the war in Afghanistan, and are paying a dear price, some with their lives. Americans have a lot to learn about Canada, but the reverse is true as well."

- Sept. 28, 2006, keynote address at the second Annual CN Forum on Canada-U.S. Relations, Michigan State University.

Jake Epp

Chairman of the board of Ontario Power Generation and chairman of Health Partners International, a non-profit group providing medical aid in Afghanistan. The former school history teacher from Steinbach, Man., was a Conservative MP from 1972-1993. Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in the short-lived Joe Clark government in 1979 and Health and Energy Minister under Mr. Mulroney.

"Most Afghan doctors don't have medicine at all and when they do, it is often low quality and perhaps not what the bottle indicates. When an Afghan hospital received an impressive shipment of assorted medicines from HPIC, a doctor commented to our staff that now he had medicine that actually works."

- Nov. 14, 2006, at Beyond Our Borders signing ceremony in Toronto.

Pamela Wallin

Chancellor of the University of Guelph. Former TV journalist (co-host of Canada AM, CTV Ottawa bureau chief, co-host of CBC Prime Time News, host of Pamela Wallin Live). Consul-General in New York 2002-2006.

"From the U.S. perspective, the inability of the UN to act left the U.S. with no option but to protect itself from the future possibilities of another terrorist attack, aided and abetted by a rogue government in Iraq. And agree or not, for Americans the reality is that this war began on September 11. It's part of a continuum that runs through to the routing of the Taliban from Afghanistan, and moves forward to the war in Iraq - just another step along the path to remove terrorist threats around the globe."

- April 28, 2003, to a joint meeting of The Empire Club of Canada and The Canadian Club of Toronto.

See:

Dog Bites Man

No Time Lines For Afghanistan Exit

Harper On Executive Power

Stephen Mulroney

Stephen Mulroney Brian Harper

Canada's Real Prime Minister

Not Your Daddies Conservative Party, well...

Mulroney's Ghost

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Jake Epp, Pamela Wallin, John Manley, Paul Tellier, Derek Burney, Afghanistan