posted September 26, 2006 12:42 AM              

PEJ News - Jack Etkin - If more than 1000 'insurgents' were killed, then who were we killing and why and do our troops even really know the true situation on the ground. These are important questions, and this story is one of the very few that tells us anything other than that 'we are fighting for democracy and freedom'...

Who are Canadian Troops Fighting?

Jack Etkin

PEJ News
September 24, 2006

A remarkable story appeared in the Globe and Mail on Sat. Sept 23. It actually seems to tell some truth, the other side of the story we have been fed by the corporate media since day 1 of Canada's Afghanistan adventure. I'm not sure how this story got past the censors, but following is a synopsis of the story by Graeme Smith on P. A13 of the Globe.

... The official story of Operation Medusa is that the 2-week campaign was a triumph in which NATO forces, led by Canadian troops, killed more than 1000 Taliban fighters, with NATO being welcomed by the local people.
But interviews with tribal elders, farmers, adn others suggest another reality. Many of the people killed, perhaps up to half of them, were simply local farmers who were rising against corrupt police and local officials. Many local people were actually supporting the Taliban in the hope of getting rid of corrupt local authorities, put in place by and supported by the Karzai government. And the area is already sliding back towards the conditions that led to the violence in the first place.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that police have already resumed the tactics that originally ignited local anger. Locals say that gangs of police have swept back into the area - behind Canadian forces - and are robbing and stealing as before.
Even politicians who generally support the government concede that the situation in the area was aggravated by the missteps of local authorities.

For example, last month the government assigned Abdul Razik to clear insurgents from the area, as the insurgency was gaining strength. Mr. Razik is a police commander from a nearby area but his fighters are not from the area and were not welcome. The locals fought off his men, but Raziks men were soon followed by more police and the Afghan Army. The locals tell of being subject to beatings as well as the police stealing their cash, valuables, cellphones, etc.

All of this stopped when the Taliban entered the area and took control. People appreciated the peace and safety they brought... Locals were afraid of the Taliban, but it was better than the random beatings and thievery of the police.

It seems that Canadian troops may have been fighting against local farmers and villagers, and they may also have been helping corrupt officials and police, if this story is correct.

If more than 1000 'insurgents' were killed, then who were we killing and why and do our troops even really know the true situation on the ground. These are important questions, and this story is one of the very few that tells us anything other than that 'we are fighting for democracy and freedom'...

posted September 26, 2006 12:49 AM              

Harper's Taste For War
Contributed by: 4Canada

PM's pride tied to military muscle, U.S. approval.
By Murray Dobbin
Published: September 25, 2006

TheTyee.ca
[Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part series.]

It is alarming for many Canadians to watch Stephen Harper, the head of a minority government with the support of fewer than 40 per cent of citizens, turn Canada into a nation of war. But that is what is happening.

The roots of Harper's preference for war go to the core of his view of government: maintaining a strong, war-fighting armed forces is one of the few roles that Harper believes government should have. He is fighting a war against a battle-hardened and determined enemy in one of the most the most fiercely independent nations on earth. The complexity of Afghan society confounds all but a few who would try to understand it. Yet, for Stephen Harper, understanding Afghanistan seems almost irrelevant. But it is relevant because this is a war that Canada and the West cannot win, any more than Britain and the Soviets could before us. And Canada will share disproportionately in its ultimate loss in terms of dead and wounded, billions of dollars wasted and our international reputation sullied for a long time to come. It will go down in history as one of our country's biggest foreign policy disasters.

Stephen Harper: The War Prime Minister

Stephen Harper's contempt for Canada and what it became in the decades following the Second World War is firmly on the record. Most of his comments -- his sneering dismissal of our egalitarianism and sense of community -- relate to social programs like medicare. He once declared Canada "...a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its...social services to mask its second-rate status."

It was not until recently that he revealed his disdain for Canada's three decades of peacekeeping. In a CBC interview conducted as Parliament resumed sitting this month, Harper showed that he relished the fact that Canadian soldiers were war-fighting, and dismissed Canada's peacekeeping history as virtual cowardice: "For a lot of the last 30 or 40 years, we were the ones hanging back." He even mused that the deaths of Canadian soldiers were a boost for the military -- cathartic after years of not being able to kill or die like real soldiers. "I can tell you it's certainly engaged our military. It's, I think, made them a better military notwithstanding -- and maybe in some way because of -- the casualties."

Utterly blind to how the rest of the world sees the conflict in Afghanistan, Harper told the CBC that Canada's role in Afghanistan is "...certainly raising Canada's leadership role, once again, in the United Nations and in the world community."

You have only to look at Harper's history and his government's "five priorities" to understand why he would get Canada and himself deeper into a conflict he cannot win. For five years in the middle of his political career, Harper was with the National Citizens Coalition, an extreme right-wing organization that was founded by an insurance company millionaire explicitly to fight public medicare. Its slogan is "More freedom through less government." It is virtually impossible for Stephen Harper to recognize Canadian leadership in any field -- such as medicare -- that he believes Canada should not be involved in. For the Conservative prime minister, the Afghanistan conflict may be literally the first time that Canada has shown real leadership in decades.

Dying to be proud

posted September 26, 2006 12:51 AM              

http:// www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1159135811663&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1112876262536[/URL]

Afghan mission impossible: Poll
Half of Canadians oppose troop role
Support dropping sharply: EKOS

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1158531020079&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

posted September 26, 2006 12:45 PM              

Ah, yes...the good 'ol days. That was before the misery of the Mid-East bubbled over into the west. We would have preferred that it hadn't, but it did. Would it really be wise to resume on the same path that we were on before? The reality is, terrorism, and the miserable existance of many people in the mid-east is inherently connected. Terrorism targets the west, so it's in our own best interest to address the miserable conditions of life found in the mid-east. If we can help to make life better for them in the long run, then we should try. If they can't seem to get there as fast as we would like, should we just give up? It's too late for that.

posted September 27, 2006 09:53 PM              

No, the war on terror isn't perfect. We don't really know what the best approach is. We're learning as we go. For God sake, we're just people, not gods. But at least we're doing something. That's better than doing nothing, and the wisdom will come in time. The truth is, we mean well. That's got to count for something, flawed and human as we are.