New Media

Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee co-founder and professional human rights advocate Lauryn Oates issues a call to action for the international mission in Afghanistan: stay involved and help provide education to the new generation — and by the way, make sure the security is there so that the fanatics don’t wreck the these efforts in the meantime:

I think it’s imperative that an international security force remain on the ground in Afghanistan for at least a decade to come, and that should include representation from Canada. This is part of the solution in that it will provide much needed breathing space to build the foundations of a long-term solution: the establishment of effective, quality education, health care, good governance, legal reform, poverty alleviation, and space for the growth of civil society. But the Canadian government, and other donor governments who want to see a stable, peaceful Afghanistan must begin to explicitly make the link between long-term security and quality education; and they must be in it for the long haul.

Education is the most important place donor governments can put their money. But it will take years, if not decades, of commitment and there must be clear measures of accountability for results. It’s not enough that schools are open and pupils – girls and boys – are in their seats. More must be done, and soon. By investing in a quality education system in Afghanistan, Canada will help prevent future wars; and by maintaining a military presence on the ground now and beyond 2011, they can help stop this one.

This of course is in stark contrast to the strategy that appears to be favored by Afghan parliamentarian Malalai Joya, the darling of the largely leftist “troops-out-now” movement. Joya has still failed to explain how an international pullout followed by a civil war and eventual Taliban victory would be good for Afghan women.

Indeed, it is clear that all Afghan women with access to email list-servers and other means of communication are virtually unanimous in their opposition to Joya’s treacherous demagoguery. That’s because they know what a Taliban victory means in Afghanistan.

Malalai Joya, how will this help Afghan women?

Afghanistan gets out the vote today despite threats (and actual violence) by the Taliban. Thank you for this, Terry. This is good news.

As for this traitor, there is no hope for redemption. In his own words:

To put it another way, if we, as avowed anti-imperialists, intend to wait around for a resistance movement that agrees with us on every issue, including the need to fight the oppression of women, gays, racial and religious minorities, etc., we’ll be waiting a long time. The Taliban is the resistance in Afghanistan and we must support it, critically, but unreservedly…

Every U.S. and NATO tank that the Taliban destroy, every Karzai-appointed stooge they assassinate and every town or village they liberate is a victory for our side and a grievous blow to U.S. imperialism–we would do well to remember that and to offer our solidarity and support for a Taliban victory in Afghanistan.

All I can say for Nick K. is that he at least had the good sense to remain anonymous and without a return address. There’s opposing war in all it’s forms, and then there’s acting as a fifth-column propagandist in support of a demonstrably evil enemy. This man is a traitor in wartime, plain and simple.

With all due respect to the mourning family of Canadian soldier Karine Blais, killed this week by a roadside bomb, she did not, as her godfather claims, die for nothing.

Such statements insult the memory of Karine, and the intelligence of all who serve in Afghanistan under the banner of the United Nations.

Canada has a volunteer army. We’ve been in Afghanistan since October 2001, so it’s reasonable to believe that virtually anyone who has joined in the military since then, or has continued to serve until now, believes in the mission. Nobody joins the Canadian Forces for the generous pay and benefits.

Our mission is to help vulnerable people, who are overwhelmingly opposed to thugs with a medieval fascist agenda, defend themselves and develop peacefully. A sovereign and functioning Afghanistan will be better able to ensure its territory is never again used as a training ground for terrorists to carry out attacks in the West.

Karine Blais didn’t die for nothing. Indeed, one famous passage from our Canadian heritage seems appropriate here:

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, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Canada’s battlegroup in Afghanistan has handed over command to a new group of Canadian soldiers (CTV.ca). There’s still much work to be done before the troops can come home.

Yes, Conservative PM Stephen Harper has already announced that the larger portion of our military involvement in central Asia is likely to end in 2011 (which the Taliban and their allies are likely hailing as a strategic victory a la the Madrid bombings). But it’s not fast enough for at least one foreign policy lightweight, who happens to be the leader of a mainstream political party. Says mustachioed moron Jack Layton, “We’ve got to construct a comprehensive peace process using all the various tools and elements that are available in the UN toolbox — and they are many — in order to work towards the accomplishment of ceasefires, piece by piece, working towards negotiations in as many locations as possible” (The Star).

To which Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee founding member and political commentator Terry Glavin would likely reply:

“The NDP’s ideas have already been tried, and they have already failed catastrophically. This is why UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon describes the ground that the NDP has staked out as ‘a misjudgement of historic proportions.’ It’s because the position demands “the repetition of a mistake that has already had terrible consequences.

“Quite apart from the earth-rattling mistake the “international community” made when it abandoned the Afghan people to the Taliban in the first place, Canada has already tried withdrawing its troops. We already did that once. After joining with NATO in driving out the Taliban, we joined an exodus of foreign troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2002. Canada withdrew its troops, our meagre successes were slammed into reverse, and the whole country started sliding back into barbarism again.”

Is Afghanistan really neutralized as an election issue for 2008? Perhaps. But we’re still going to need clear thinking about our involvement in Afghanistan and the endgame we desire for a long time to come.

The Darfur genocide will not end.

That’s because the government of Sudan will never allow United Nations forces to send an armed force strong enough to stop the carnage. Even if the regime did finally give in to international pressure, Al Queda and its allies have already promised to turn such a mission into another Iraq.

I spoke to Darfurian refugees at a rally in Vancouver on the weekend. They said they wanted aid – economic, military, whatever the international community could provide.

Many people at the rally were even calling for Canada to send troops to lead a mission – hopefully not the exact same people who are calling for a Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan – perhaps believing that a Sudan mission would more resemble our past operation in Cyprus than our current efforts in Kandahar province.

We are tied down in Afghanistan, and will be until 2009. International troops in that country, including Canadians, are the only thing preventing a civil war killing potentially millions. Sudan can’t wait until 2009.

Unfortunately, they may have to.