why are we fighting in Afghanistan?
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his government’s recent Throne Speech announced that he wants to extend Canada’s participation in the Afghan War for another two years. Many people are asking why are we in Afghanistan and for what purpose are our soldiers dying? What are the other costs to Canadians? The Conservative Government of Stephen Harper is attempting to portray the Afghan war as “a humanitarian mission” while continuing to fight against Afghans who are resisting what they see as “foreign invaders.” I wonder how Canadians would see American, Russian or Chinese soldiers who invaded our country, over threw an unpopular government, killed tens of thousands, wounded many thousands more, caused wanton destruction and massive environmental damage. Even if they claimed that they were bringing “democracy to Canada” I do not believe that most Canadians would be impressed. The recent poll published in the Globe and Mail showed that Afghans want the fighting to end, and they supp
What is the primary reason Canadians are in Afghanistan? To fight terrorists or to work positively with Afghans to reconstruct their country [“Canadians divided over war”, March 16-23]? No less a person than Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor said to the Ottawa Sun: “The military are there to provide the protective environment, the secure environment, for development to take place and the economy to regain and that really is the most important part.” Many of the people they face, in his view, are not committed terrorists, for “a lot of the recruits they get are because they’re being offered money by the insurgency, because the insurgency is often tied up with the drug trade,” he said. “They’re offering youth money, and if you’re in a village and you have no money at all and you’re offered a salary, you might join. They’re survivors.” Quite a different foe than what a Taliban spokesman would have us believe in AP and CP reports, that “some 200 people had registered for suicide attacks.” T
What are pour goals there? Unless memory fails me, we asked the Taliban to turn Osama bin Laden over to us. They refused, so we went into Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan and the Northern Alliance. Osama bin Laden is still a free man but we did free the Afghanistan people from the oppressive Taliban regime. That was a noble achievement but we should also remember that we helped the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in their fight against the Soviets. We empowered both when it suited us. So what do we do now? In our obsession to kill Taliban fighters we kill and maim countless innocent Afghanis. And for every Taliban fighter we kill we create a dozen who are willing to fight against us – who rescued them from the Taliban. Other NATO countries are doing a better job by concentrating on making life easier for the Afghan people.
