New Media

The only honest ‘anti-war’ position about Afghanistan is to support Canada’s military engagement there. The holier-than-Marx fuzzy-brains on the west coast such as MAWO and Stopwar.ca still shout “Troops Out Now” even though they know full well that an international pullout from that country would result in an immediate bloodbath. Fortunately, they are not the only voices out there.

The west coast branch of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee is featured in the National Post today for our efforts in offering an alternative to the brainless anti-colonial propaganda emanating from the embarrassing coalition of useful idiots that seem to have hijacked the peace movement in this country (BC group fights disinformation on Afghan mission).

An excerpt: …A new countermovement has formed, one that lauds the Canadian Forces and its efforts in Afghanistan. Strange as it might seem, it’s based here in Vancouver, where the political landscape tilts sharply to the left.

The committee takes direct aim at MAWO, warning students and activists to steer clear of it, and describing it as “a bizarre cult-like group” whose demands for an immediate withdrawal of military from Afghanistan are “simplistic, ignorant and morally disgraceful.”

Further into the NP story, Afghan-Canadian Karim Qayumi, a CASC member and the director of research at the University of British Columbia’s divisions of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, had this to say:

“I know many Afghans who are passionate about the military mission in Afghanistan but they are still critical of it,” Dr. Qayumi said. “I am critical, but I support it, because I know that a withdrawal would lead to chaos. Civil war…

“I am totally amazed by Canadians and their efforts to help in Afghanistan,” he says. “Unfortunately, I have also encountered Canadians who do not understand the problems there… They say there are promoting peace, but what they advocate will lead to more war.” Better than most of us, he knows that extremists cannot go unchallenged.

Read the full National Post article “B.C. group fights disinformation on Afghan mission“

Canada’s mission in Afghanistan has received a recent boost from some unexpected non-partisan cooperation between the Conservative minority government and Liberal opposition (Canada.com). Notwithstanding the even more recent acrimony that has inevitably made its return to Canadian politics, the idea of committing to the Afghanistan mission until 2011 (dependent on the rest of NATO sending more troops to actually fight the enemy) may hold up. That’s a darn sight better than where Canada’s politicians were heading before that. Canadians concerned about Afghanistan are pleased at our government’s renewed commitment to the people of that war-torn country (and if are one of those concerned Canadians, please read this).

Notwithstanding, the Liberal position on the Afghanistan file has been clouded more than slightly by Liberal leader Stephane Dion’s rather uninspiring statements. Earnest Canuck Lyle Neff has kindly contributed a masterpiece of political commentary to Currents to demonstrate the point. Enjoy.

GENERAL DION’S ART OF VICTORY: A STUDY IN QUOTES

“Attack the enemy where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.” – Sun Tzu

“Look, we are very willing to work with you, to design something that makes sense, because I don’t want to risk the life of our soldiers if we are not making progress…” – Stephane Dion

“To those who fall I say: You will not die but step into immortality.” – Lt-Gen Sir Arthur Currie

“What needed to be done was a thorough study of the conditions and consequences of such an extension: the troop deployment conditions; the governance situation on site; the humanitarian and development measures that will be needed…” — Dion

“If [the enemy] presume to appear in arms, they must expect the most fatal consequences; their habitations destroyed, their sacred temples exposed to an exasperated soldiery, their harvest utterly ruined…” – General Wolfe

“We will see if there is a way through clarification and exploration of the two positions to see if after February 2009 we may agree about what to do…” — Dion

“Mullah Omar’s order is effective immediately, and there will be no more beheadings by the Taliban.” — Talib spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid clarifies the Scholars’ position

“[More] forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a jihad… The continuous availability of external personnel and logistical support in a poor country like Afghanistan risks creating a structural disincentive…” – Dion lieutenant Elizabeth May

“We have jihadists in Kabul right now and soon we will carry out more attacks [i.e., restaurant bomb massacres]” – Mujahid frames a Taliban disincentive

“Take up our quarrel with the foe:/ To you from failing hands we throw/ The torch; be yours to hold it high./ If ye break faith with us who die/ We shall not sleep…” – Brigade Surgeon John McCrae

“The battle group, should we put them to PRTs and to training? I think that we need to recuperate, too, so we’ll have to refocus about, what does it mean, in the status of our troops, regarding the mission…” – Dion military aide Denis Coderre

“I went to Spain to kill as many fascists as possible; that’s all the less to kill when they get here.” – Toronto’s Fred Baxter, volunteer, Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, XV International Brigade

“There remains much to do to ensure that the stability and governance institutions are in place to allow Afghans themselves to resolve their differences… a greater emphasis on stronger and more disciplined diplomatic efforts, and striking a better balance with respect to the reconstruction and development efforts… will be essential to creating a stable Afghanistan…” – Dion

“We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.” – Taliban soulmate Hussein Massawi

“In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man/
“As modest stillness and humility;/
“But when the blast of war blows in our ears,/
“Then imitate the action of the tiger:/
“Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood…” – Henry V (reportedly)

“Liberals also believe that clarity, honesty and transparency are essential to the success of the mission. To this end, we believe, and our amended motion stipulates [that]… in the coming weeks, we will continue our debate.” — Dion

Vancouver real estate, Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, the rise of Stephen Harper’s radical centrist Conservative party, trading and baiting with China, environmentalists up in arms… It’s only been a few months since the switch over from the old site, but jnarvey.COM has covered a lot of ground this season.

Enjoy the end of year celebration. With 2010 Vancouver Olympics preparations ongoing, a federal election in the offing, and nations picking fights in far too many parts of the world, 2007 promises to be a busy year. Thanks for reading.

Tags: Jonathon Narvey, Vancouver blogger, radical centrist

I wore a poppy today.

The pin kept coming out of my sweater and I continually had to pick up the red plastic flower, dust it off and put it back on. My international students noticed it and asked about it. I told them that we wear it to remember our soldiers who fought for Canada in war.

Of course, that was pretty much all I could say. Most of my Japanese students are probably not even aware that Canadian soldiers fought Japanese in bloody battles in the Second World War. I certainly wasn’t going to say much about it with the German student. And any discussion of this topic with my Korean students present was likely to touch off a firestorm that might end up destroying friendships they’d formed with their Japanese colleagues – friendships that one by one are helping to reduce some of the traditional emnity between their countries.

Despite our ongoing mission in Afghanistan, or perhaps in part as a result of it, Canadians have an impression of war as being something that happens to other people in distant lands. Canadians only go to war because they choose to, not because they have to (notwithstanding Canada’s conscription debates of the First and Second World Wars).

Remembrance Day will likely boost coverage of our Afghanistan mission. That’s a good thing. Hopefully, the information overload will help reduce some of the overblown comparisons by leftist spin doctors of Afghanistan and Iraq. People in this country are free to criticize any of our military interventions overseas – but they should at least have all the facts on hand before they agree to leave Afghans to the medieval thugs who terrorized the country and turned it into a haven for Osama bin Ladin’s terrorists.

Call it a Mobilization Against Wankers and Obsfucators.

The Georgia Straight recently published an article criticizing the Canadian military’s multicultural-oriented recruitment policy, quoting one of the local propagandists affiliated with Mobilization Against War and Occupation as saying the practice amounted to an “economic draft”. My subsequent letter to the editor can be found here.

Rather than point out once more the dumb ideology and ethically shaky ground that MAWO stands on in its fight against “Canadian racist imperialism” and our biggest security commitment abroad, I’ll let Georgia Straight contributor Terry Glavin do the fighting for me. His article in the same issue stabs right at the organization’s legitemacy (or lack thereof).

Glavin writes: Vancouver’s antiwar activism is moving away from the broad base of support for Canada’s refusal to join the Anglo-American enterprise in Iraq, and it has jettisoned any hope of friendship with Vancouver’s 6,000-member Afghan émigré community.

Glavin also brought up Vancouver City Council’s own Councillor Tim Louis’ tragedy of illogic and inhumanity regarding Afghanistan in his article:

“The government would collapse in a matter of days,” he says. Nevertheless, when asked for his view on the Canadian military presence in Afghanistan, Louis replied: “Out now… I don’t have a coherent argument against the fact that the UN has authorized it (the Afghan mission).…Even if the UN authorized it, it would still be against the rule of law.”

Hmmm. Nice, Tim. I think you could probably have finished your speech at, “I don’t have a coherent argument…”