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In my teens I worked at CFB Trenton; a time when Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister and Canadians returned as proud soldiers from peace keeping work. In those days nearly all military personnel believed in Canada’s role as a peace-keeping nation. Today soldiers return in body bags and Stephen Harper prevents reporters and citizens from entering the big public air terminal lounge where I used to work. Chubya Harper, the little Bush sees Canada as a suburb of the President’s America. He wants us locked into a dying ideal called “The War on Terror.” The Tories preach absolute support for our troops; we are not to consider what it is they are actually doing or whom they might be killing. Today we wouldn’t want to do a lot of thinking about the school Coalition forces bombed, killing fifty people, a lot of them civilians. We have bought into the religion called Bushianity, a faith favoured by those who have forgotten God’s real commandment not to kill. In Bushianity democracy remains as a higher gospel while we practice an appearance of it. The puppet governments we support live by the bullets of our troops and not popular support. In Afghanistan clerics across that nation, even in Kabul, are calling on worshippers to take up weapons and suicide missions to drive the invaders out. They are solidly behind the Taliban’s new leader Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani in the hope of holy war leading to a religious state. Chubba Harper’s democratic Afghan illusion and our mission there were extended as he forced a vote, giving only 48-hours notice, nine months early. Canadians barely had a chance to read about it in the news let alone debate it. Most people simply heard that a non binding vote had squeaked through in the commons at 149 to 145; and that regardless of the vote’s outcome Stephen Harper intended to extend our mission in Afghanistan. To create a facade of popular support for the mission Chubba crossed to the Liberals to shake the hand of Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leadership candidate who aided the Tories by convincing a minority of Liberals to support the motion. Thus creating a media fantasy of broad support for the Afghan mission and hiding the actual result. Harper can now campaign for a majority government, and as Canadian anger over the mission grows he can say he had the support of the House. Of course the opposite is true. For a long extension of such a controversial mission broader moral support would be required. The genuine truth is that three-quarters of the Liberal caucus, including half of Ignatieff’s supporters and six of his leadership rivals voted against the mission extension. The Bloc and the NDP opposed the mission extension with vigor. We have three parties together in support against this mission extension. Suffer no illusions; Harper is the source of the war extension and his ruse of democracy a device to keep Canadians out of the debate. In my estimation the Liberals look better for not supporting Harper. Michael Ignatieff and Scott Brison come across as leadership candidates who couldn’t rally other Liberals and as less than progressives in the race. Leadership candidate Bob Rae and other Liberals saw the Harper trap instantly. Mr. Harper wanted a fast immunization of his government from future criticism should the Afghanistan campaign turn ugly. Excluding Canadians from the debate serves Harper well as it hides the facts. He doesn’t have to admit to a confused mission that is difficult and dangerous; an operation in which we seem to be supporting warlords, the opium trade and our own variety of Afghan extremists. Democracy is not the higher power in a land where they’ve been fighting for hundreds of years. History shows that the largest military force rules in Afghanistan, whether that is Soviets, Warlords, Taliban or Coalition forces. The Americans know that because they are stocking up with millions of dollars worth of Soviet bombs and ammunition to hand to Hamid Karzai’s government should a Democratic President come in and abandon the mission.
Blindly extending the mission means Canadians could end up left there. And it is hard to explain why we are there in the first place; more difficult to justify such a mission of warfare. Bush’s War on Terrorism has created worldwide terror. The armies of media-named insurgents (formerly called rebels and freedom fighters) grow each day, awakening us to the reality that a war without borders that fails to target the arms industry and destabilizes entire regions of the planet is a plan for permanent war. Canadians are not spiritually combat troops; peace comes through peacekeeping and most know that instinctively. Yet we have abandoned peacekeeping. Canada now contributes only 59 military personnel to UN missions. 2,200 of our troops remain stationed under U.S. command in Afghanistan. The war mission has eaten our resources, preventing us from participating in UN-led peacekeeping. Direct aid for the poor is a better answer than aid for war making. We could do more without using troops at all. Unfortunately our government has spent $4.1 billion on Afghan military operations since 9-11. We spent only $214 million on UN missions during the same period. Stephen Harper’s extension of the Afghan lie leaves us crippled in future years. It is clear that Chubya really does need a majority, then he can pass strong laws to hide the bodies and to hide the truth. In Canada we’ll feel much better when we see no evil. And leave Harper and the Tories to “just do it in Afghanistan.” --------------------------- More Chubba Reports
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Harper's
Budget is Largesse for the Super Rich See also -Canada’s real role in Afghanistan : Canadians are spilling their blood to prop up a corrupt, vicious, and undemocratic puppet government See also - Harper Support from Big Oil
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