I'm getting pretty sick of Canadians whining about getting out of Afghanistan. I understand the dismay over our government's lack of disclosure over why we're there and increasing troop casualties, but do people seriously want us to just drop everything and leave? Or negotiate with the Taliban as Jack Layton has suggested?
First of all, abandoning such a feeble state in that part of the world would be a disaster, as it was the first time when the Taliban rolled out the red carpet for Al-Qaeda to plan 9/11. Sandwiched in between we-shadily-secure-our-nuclear-warheads Russia and we-have-a-shitload-of-terrorists-and-we've-got-nukes Pakistan, it's at the crossroads of one of the world's most dangerous regions. Not to mention its long border with atomic aspirant and regional up-and-comer, Iran, who likes picking out failed states to host its terrorists.
Weak states are the perfect breeding ground for terrorism. Lebanon can't confront Hezbollah because its state institutions - specifically the military and police force - don't exert influence across the entire country. Better to tolerate their presence and prolong your own poltical livelihood than try and crack down and risk assassination, overthrow, etc.
If we leave Afghanistan's elected government toothless and only in control of Kabul, how long will it be before it has to allow the Taliban and the opium-growing warlords to run roughshod over the rule of law our soldiers have died to instill?
Then there's Jack Layton's idea of reasoning the ever-reasonable Taliban. Show them that casualties are hurting our national resolve and reward them for slaughtering our soldiers with a nice chunk of territory in beautiful mountainous south Kandahar province. That's just a guess, though. I really have no idea what concessions he'd be willing to make to mysogynist Islamofascists, or how he could even consider bargaining in good faith with those who publicly stoned women in the national soccer stadium. Anything to distinguish the NDP from those supporting an increasingly unpopular war, I guess.
2 comments:
So.... stay the course - support the Prime Minister?
Jack "Cut'N'Run" Layton is definitely trying to politically profit from this and I think he's trying to appeal to the war-hating frogs. If the Conservatives can't up their seats in Quebec, they can't form a majority. It's too bad he plays politics with something as important as the Afghan mission.
Did you notice Hillier mention that the fighting in Afghanistan is now worse than in Iraq and that NATO will never win this war? Taliban can still generally control 70% of Afghanistan since the tropps are stretched so thin. Props to Poland though 900 frontliners!
Yes yes yes. Nice to hear rational thoughts on this topic.
Seemingly unrelated but not really... in the movie "Traffic" the FBI attempt to take down one drug cartel working on a tip from another cartel - only to realize that by taking one down, they're doing the competition a big favour. When they have a big fish in custody he tells the police "You work for a drug dealer too."
And with those simple words he illustrates how everyone is part of the bigger problem.
Maybe it's not a good example but I feel that if we were to leave Afghanistan to the Iranians et. al, we'd be working for terrorists too.
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