The members of the Harper government have argued that Canada needs to fight in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban and to sustain the government of Hamid Karzai. While the Karzai government upholds the rule of law, is committed to democracy and the rights of women, the Taliban is the implacable enemy of civilization, on these and a host of other matters, according to the Harper government.
Recently, the Karzai government has been negotiating with elements of the Taliban, and Hamid Karzai has said he wants to bring Taliban leaders into his administration.
What the hell is going on?
The head of the government we are fighting for, the man who is supposed to symbolize all that is decent in Afghanistan, wants members of the terrorist insurgency to join with him in ruling the country. Representatives of the Harper government have made it clear that Canada does not approve of negotiations with the Taliban, but that it’s up to the Karzai government to decide on its own policies. (Having dispatched troops to help Afghans uphold the government they really want, we could hardly try to dictate to the government in Kabul, could we?)
So, what are we doing in Afghanistan? Hamid Karzai does not seem to regard the members of the Taliban as beyond the pale of civilization the way Stephen Harper does.
Are our troops fighting and dying to improve the bargaining power of Hamid Karzai in restructuring his government with members of the Taliban in it? How is this conflict worth the life of even one more Canadian soldier?
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3 comments:
I couldn't have said that any better myself. ;-)
http://whatdoiknowgrit.blogspot.com/2007/10/maxime-bernier-latest-conswervative.html
This action by Hamid Karzai has one meaning . . . . Canadian troops . . . . please leave my country. I am handling things my own way.
As I understand it, there are already "reformed" Taliban in the Karzai government. "Reformed" means simply that they support the Karzai government not that they have changed their views in any other way. Already the old Taliban style Department of Virtue and Vice has been restored and an unfortunate Muslim who converted to Christianity was whisked away to asylum in Italy before he was executed.
The Karzai offer is meant simply to split the Taliban. By the way the US, that makes a regular practice of claiming there should be no negotiation with terrorists applauds the Karzai offer. These guys aren't supposed to make sense.
http://kencan7.blogspot.com
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