Now there’s a vote of confidence if ever there was one.
Seven years on,hundreds of dead NATO soldiers,thousands of dead civilians,billions spent…
Yet doubt and insecurity remain rampant,while spin,is the name of the game.
And on it goes when & where it ends nobody knows.
He states
What this means is that the heirs and successors of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion — the brave Canadian volunteers who went to Spain to fight Franco’s fascists — are to be found today not in the main ranks of the left, but among the courageous young men and women of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Vandoos and all those other Canadian regiments that are holding the banner high in Afghanistan.
Wow ,what I load of tripe.
Earth to Terry,the Canadian soldiers were sent to Afghanistan they did not volunteer.
The same army that was called on to suppress the Mohawk in 1990, over a fucking golf course.
Indeed its more about testosterone charged young males out for adventure.Combat being the ultimate test(at least in the minds of some), of ones “manhood” and “mettle”,whorahh,whorahh.
After all that’s why young men join armies,that’s why the Armed Forces likes em young.
If killing men, women and children is abhorrent to you, don’t join the military. It’s that simple.
Spare us the Mac-Pap analogies….
And in a right-wing rag to boot ?
Speaking of right-wing rags…. (more…)
Filed under: Afghanistan, Canada, Guantanamo, Harper, Ishmael Beah, Omar Khadar, U.S
Well that Depends…
For instance if its a 15 year old from Africa,who by his own admittance has killed more people (other blacks)than he can count,well he’s a victim(and in all liklihood he is).
Indeed Ishmael Beah is the toast of the book publishing circuit.
That said,it’s very easy to forgive others for the crimes they committed.Particularly when they happen in far away lands,that many of us have no connection with,real or imagined.
What of the families of those killed ,by Ishmael Beah ,would they be as forgiving or understanding ?
But if you are a 15 year old brown Muslim kid who supposedly threw a(that means one) grenade that supposedly killed,an American/white person i.e one of us.Forgiveness & understanding are in short supply.
A Canadian captured in Afghanistan at age 15 can be tried for murder in the Guantanamo war crimes court, a U.S. military judge ruled in rejecting claims that he was a child soldier who should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.
And the evidence(hard) ?… well there is none.That’s where the military tribunal comes into play.
And before Canadians get all smug or outraged by U.S actions.
Lets not forget that Canada is the only Western country,unlike for example Australia & the U.K,that refuses to defend the human & civil rights of it’s citizens(never mind those of it’s children), incarcerated by the U.S military.
Seems Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s knickers are riding a bit high.
Recent media reports,quoting Canadian military sources in Afghanistan, suggest that they are talking to the Taliban …
A Toronto newspaper quoted Lt.-Col. Gordon Corbould, the new battle group commander, and Sgt. Tim Seeley, a civilian-military co-operation officer for Canada’s Provincial Reconstruction Team, on Thursday as saying that channels were being opened to moderate Taliban.
To which MacKay responded…
Members of the Canadian military who have been encouraging low- and mid-level Taliban to talk with Afghan authorities were out of line, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday.
Whats the fuzz ? Its a well known fact,that not all the groups fighting the Afghan government are terrorists.
Some do have legitimate grievances many of which can be traced back to the still “simmering”(a bit of an understatement…) civil war.
Indeed as this page pointed out in an earlier post,Afghan officials have admitted as much….
-fighting alone will not succeed because there are Afghan elements involved who are not are not terrorists….
-not all who fight against the government are sharing the ideology of Al Quida and it’s vision
-they do have national grievances in that not only affect the continuation of war but also affects the government stability inside and around the government…..
And beside did the government not state,a while back,that they would not hinder/second guess the Cnd Military’s operational decisions.After all they’re the ones in the thick of it,who else has better intelligence in regards to the lay of the land ?
Peter MacKay,back in Ottawa….?
Of course not,this is just MacKay’s ego talking.After all humble pie is not the tastiest.
Particularly since the Armed Force’s new approach,would also seem to suggest,that the NDP’s position was spot on.Ouch that’s gotta sting eh Pete,anyway over to Jack…
“I was pleased to hear that our military on the ground were looking at opening up lines of communication with the insurgents,” Layton said Saturday while attending a provincial NDP convention in St. John’s.
“Our party has always argued that we’ve got to carve out a path towards peace, it’s got to involve some negotiations and discussions, even with those combatants with whom we’re engaged in combat.”
There’s politics and there’s the real world.Thats why they invented word-smithing…
Other officials in Kandahar, who spoke privately, backed up the military’s assessment, calling it creative thinking.
The Washington Post’s David Ignatius is just back from a U.S. Government- sponsored trip to Afghanistan, in which he was able to examine the situation up close and form some first-hand conclusions. He wrote about the trek, with the obligatory citations to Rudyard Kipling and Gertrude Bell, in a recent column in the Post. And last night he expanded on his voyage into the dark heartland of Inner Asia during an appearance on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, where he delivered utterly predictable findings. His message was identical to that of his host: there are problems in Afghanistan, certainly, but the U.S.-driven counterinsurgency efforts are “finding some traction” and scoring important successes. “Surge” talk has moved east.
Read more @ Harper’s Magazine;‘The Afghan Opium Dreams of David Ignatius’
