Last night in Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a pep talk on the need for Canadians to learn the lessons of 9/11 and to carry on the struggle in Afghanistan. “As the events of September 11 so clearly illustrate, the horrors of the world will not go away if we turn a blind eye to them, no matter how far off they may be,” he said.
“And these horrors cannot be stopped unless some among us are willing to accept enormous sacrifice and risk to themselves.”
What really gets me about this rally round the flag stuff and the call on young Canadians to sacrifice themselves is that the war in Afghanistan is a dirty war and our government knows it.
Members of the Harper government know full well that Taliban fighters can pull back across the border into neighbouring Pakistan whenever the heat is too great for them in Afghanistan. And they know that top Taliban leaders are among the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who are refugees in Pakistan in cities like Quetta not far from the border. They know as well despite public assurances from Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff that he is our ally in the war on terror, that Pakistan does bugger all to stop the Taliban from moving back and forth across the border. In Pakistan, the Taliban hide and rearm for the next round.
Of course, we can expect members of the Bush administration to call on Musharaff to step up his efforts to stop the incursions into Afghanistan. But the Americans have much bigger fish to fry in Pakistan. They want to keep this key nuclear power on board as an American ally and do not want it to fall into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists. They are willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that Musharaff plays games with the Taliban, does not want a strong Afghanistan and cannot really control elements of his own security forces in the border region.
If this dirty war has to grind on for years to come, that’s OK with Washington as long as the number of American casualties is kept to an acceptable level. That’s where we come in. Having a couple of thousand Canadians in dangerous, front line missions against the Taliban takes the heat off the Americans. In the United States, Canadian casualties don’t cause political problems. Indeed, they are barely visible.
Meanwhile, the rest of NATO is ignoring pleas for reinforcements in Afghanistan. Most Europeans want no part of this miserable conflict.
As long as Canadians are willing to ante up our troops to fight in southern Afghanistan, the higher ups who run the strategy of the West will be happy to have them there. In both world wars, British generals didn’t mind sacrificing Canadians, Australians and other colonials. It’s no different today.
That’s why it’s so grating to hear Stephen Harper talk about sacrifice.
“And these horrors cannot be stopped unless some among us are willing to accept enormous sacrifice and risk to themselves.”
What really gets me about this rally round the flag stuff and the call on young Canadians to sacrifice themselves is that the war in Afghanistan is a dirty war and our government knows it.
Members of the Harper government know full well that Taliban fighters can pull back across the border into neighbouring Pakistan whenever the heat is too great for them in Afghanistan. And they know that top Taliban leaders are among the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who are refugees in Pakistan in cities like Quetta not far from the border. They know as well despite public assurances from Pakistani President Pervez Musharaff that he is our ally in the war on terror, that Pakistan does bugger all to stop the Taliban from moving back and forth across the border. In Pakistan, the Taliban hide and rearm for the next round.
Of course, we can expect members of the Bush administration to call on Musharaff to step up his efforts to stop the incursions into Afghanistan. But the Americans have much bigger fish to fry in Pakistan. They want to keep this key nuclear power on board as an American ally and do not want it to fall into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists. They are willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that Musharaff plays games with the Taliban, does not want a strong Afghanistan and cannot really control elements of his own security forces in the border region.
If this dirty war has to grind on for years to come, that’s OK with Washington as long as the number of American casualties is kept to an acceptable level. That’s where we come in. Having a couple of thousand Canadians in dangerous, front line missions against the Taliban takes the heat off the Americans. In the United States, Canadian casualties don’t cause political problems. Indeed, they are barely visible.
Meanwhile, the rest of NATO is ignoring pleas for reinforcements in Afghanistan. Most Europeans want no part of this miserable conflict.
As long as Canadians are willing to ante up our troops to fight in southern Afghanistan, the higher ups who run the strategy of the West will be happy to have them there. In both world wars, British generals didn’t mind sacrificing Canadians, Australians and other colonials. It’s no different today.
That’s why it’s so grating to hear Stephen Harper talk about sacrifice.
1 comment:
Bush says he does not believe in cloning yet he has his clone in Canada - Harper. It is so sad that our soldiers are the victims in this dirty game played by Bush administration who wants to minimize American causalities. Bush sent Condi Rice to cajole Peter Mackay to get more soldiers for Afghanistan.
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