New Media

Some recommended reads from The Propagandist, for underground conservatives and brass-knuckles progressives alike.

• Conspiracy Theory
• Radical Leaders Prey On The Fearful And Naive
• The USA Steps Into The Gap
• Dangerous Isolationism From The Far Left And Far Right

It’s a weird, scary world out there. Hugo Chavez fanboys and Hezbollah-luvin’ fifth columnists are trying to undermine our rights and bring us back to the Dark Ages. Political correctness is strangling free speech.

The Propagandist is fighting back.

New Media fans, note that I’ll be moving much of my original political writing over to The Propagandist. This is not just another political website — we aim to make this THE go-to online magazine of its kind. Think Adbusters, but with a 180-degree difference in editorial slant.

The Propagandist is also looking for contributors. Interested? Check out the submission guidelines.

Read some of the latest articles in The Propagandist:

• The Good War
• The US Conspiracy To Help Poor People Around The World
• Corporations Helping Rebuild Haiti
• Anti-Globalization G20 Peaceniks Bomb Canadian Military

Semper Fi.

The Taliban could be finished in 2010. Things are looking up for Pakistan and the UN-mandated mission in Afghanistan.

The strategic error the Pakistani Taliban have made is game-changing. The Taliban attack on Pakistan’s army HQ means Pakistan now has no choice but to smash the fanatical thugs in what will likely be an extremely bloody operation.

Pakistan’s generals would have been happy to play a double game for years, propping up the Taliban in Afghanistan while making a show of sporadic and ineffective combat against the Taliban on their home turf, in return for billions in unconditional US military aid. No longer.

For eight years, Americans have been trying to bribe and cajole the Pakistani army to finally go into South Waziristan and do what the army of a rational state is supposed to do — enforce sovereignty right up to it’s national border. In the end, all of the logical prodding and cash-filled briefcases they’ve given their “ally” were for nothing. Many critics of the Pakistanis assumed the only thing that could get them to really take on the Taliban would be a direct attack on their masters — and now the thugs have obliged.

Some will argue that the Pakistanis simply don’t have enough military power to pacify the region where the Taliban rules. But now even Pakistan’s most recalcitrant generals should be willing to move a million troops from the Indian border into this fight. That’s a start.

Perhaps the newly emboldened Pakistani army will even be able to capture Osama in the Taliban’s home turf. You never know what they might find, now that they’ve got the stomach to do what they should have been doing for the past eight years.

They signed up for the US army voluntarily during wartime – and then decided they’d rather live out the rest of the Iraq war in Canada. Now we’re sending them back – along with up to 300 other soldiers.

There’s no question that Iraq is a debacle. The country is a shambles and likely a terrorist breeding ground for years to come. And while the US-led multinational force in Iraq operates under a (little-publicized) UN mandate, the whole mission is under fire from the vast majority of pundits of the left and right from around the globe.

But soldiers who volunteer for the army don’t get to choose which wars they get to fight.

I do have sympathy for deserters like US Army Private Brad McCall, currently staying in Vancouver. He’ll surely be affected by the Canadian Supreme Court’s decision.

During a recent conversation with me, McCall told me of how his entire family wished he were fighting in Iraq right now instead of living up north. They won’t even talk to the guy. He is cut off from everyone he ever loved or cared about.

That’s harsh. But he must have had some inkling of what to expect. And if he does face prison time, then that will be another fairly predictable consequence of his actions.

But perhaps there is another way out: clearly, the UN-mandated and US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan has much wider support from the international community and far more support from ordinary Afghans than the Iraq mission has from Iraqis.

Could these soldiers who refuse to serve in Iraq be given the choice of volunteering for the NATO mission in Afghanistan as Canadian assets in return for full Canadian citizenship?

These soldiers don’t want to be called on to commit war crimes in Iraq. Fair enough. Would they be willing to use their war-fighting skills to help their adopted nation bear its own heavy military burden?

These soldiers need a new place to call home. Perhaps they have a way to earn it.