Sad Reality...

Sad But True...

Strategy #13586

Think About How The Troops Must Feel...

An Invitation We Would Like To Turn Down BUT...

• U.S. surge in Afghanistan likely to highlight Canadian role in Kandahar
• Military families have mixed feelings on Afghanistan surge strategy outlined in Obama speech

A Whistleblower Of Convenience?

Pattern of memos shows so-called whistleblower seized his cause late in the game

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

Blatchford makes herself useful

Donham: In the PMO War Room, columnist Christie Blatchford must have seemed an inspired choice. She can turn a purple phrase with the best of them. She stands foursquare for troops, widows, and orphans. MORE...

Red Cross rebukes diplomat over Afghan torture allegations

A senior Red Cross official has criticized a Canadian diplomat for publicly alleging the organization believed Canada handed detainees over to Afghan authorities knowing they would likely be tortured. MORE...

Attack on senior diplomat signals demise of independent public service: experts
The Harper government’s attack on a senior diplomat could be the final blow in the unravelling of Canada’s once-sacred tradition of an independent, non-partisan public service, warn experts.

We Made A Committment, We Met The Committment......

....with the best of intentions but let's celebrate our accomplishments and admit that our being there will never be a win-win situation and bring our people home.

In accord with Canadian thinking

Canada is operating on borrowed time in Kandahar, with less than two years remaining until the end set by Parliament to the mission. It is not too late, however, for Canada to make a difference. 3:42 AM EDT

After 2011, a lighter burden

The stakes in Afghanistan are too high – and Canada has invested too much there already – to let us simply turn our backs Aug 07, 2009

Harper, Obama to discuss Afghanistan, economy
Canada's role in Afghanistan will be on the menu when Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits the White House next month.

With Ransom A Note Asking If They Know A Moderate Taliban

Taliban threaten to kill Canadian hostageTaliban militants who are holding a Canadian woman hostage in Pakistan say they will kill her if their demand for a $2-million ransom is not met by Sunday, according to a report from a Pakistani newspaper

CC:Taliban Jack

Have your say: How to give Taliban the finger
When you look at the whole of human history, it wasn't that long ago that women in the West won rights as autonomous individuals.

Harper Got The Ball Rolling.........

AFGHANISTAN: OBAMA SHOULD LISTEN TO HARPER

MACKENZIE: PM'S RIGHT, WE WON'T WIN JUST BY STAYING

Journal attacks Harper over Afghan stance

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is under fire on the website of a prestigious Washington journal for what is described as his "pessimistic" view of the war in Afghanistan.

Would This Letter Have Been Sent....

...if the Taliban didn't sense an environment of capitulation thanks to Taliban Jack wanting to hold talks, the ineptness of the left wing, that they see Canada as a haven for army deserters, etc.

Taliban letter to Canadians warns of more attacks

Updated Sun. Aug. 17 2008 7:55 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The Taliban has sent an open letter urging Canadians to push Ottawa to leave Afghanistan or face more insurgent attacks, after two Canadian aid workers were killed.

The fundamentalist Islamic group has waged a violent campaign against NATO and Afghan forces since 2001 when the Taliban was ousted in a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

In an open letter written on behalf of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" and addressed to the "Canadian people," the Taliban says Canada should not have followed the "American" agenda and has "sacrificed" its self-respect.

The letter, purportedly written by Taliban spokesperson Qari Muhammad Yussef, says the Taliban is forced to kill Canadians because innocent Afghans are being killed.

"The Afghans did not go to Canada to kill the Canadians. Rather, it is the Canadians who came to Afghanistan to kill and torture the Afghan, to please the fascist regime of America," the letter said.

"The Canadian people have to realize if their sisters, their brothers and their children are being killed in Afghanistan, it is because of the wrong policy of the government of Canada and their falling under the influence of others when they sent occupation soldiers to Afghanistan."

The letter told Canadians to prepare for more attacks like the one earlier this past week in which two Canadian aid workers were gunned down in Logar province.

"Events such as Logar will happen again, because occupied Afghanistan looks at all actors that are established in the interest of America with an eye of hostility," said the letter, which was dated Aug. 15.

"You have to convince your government to put an end to the occupation of Afghanistan so that the Afghans are not killed with your hands and so that you are not killed with the hands of the Afghans."

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the letter a propaganda exercise and said the threats in it will have no effect on Canadian policy. Kory Teneycke also said it's not surprising the Taliban are targeting aid workers considering that they attack their own civilians.

The letter was released on a weekend that saw deadly violence throughout Afghanistan, with more than 90 people reported killed over four days. There were reports that:

• Afghan authorities killed 32 Taliban fighters during a four hour battle on Sunday. Five private security guards also died.
• Ten Afghan police officers were killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Kandahar province on Saturday.
• Foreign forces and Afghan troops killed seven militants in clashes Saturday in a mountainous area of Zabul province. Similar clashes between police and militants also left four insurgents dead in eastern Paktika province. Three police officers were wounded.
• Four police officers were killed on Friday during an insurgent attack that left 23 militants dead in southern Helmand province.

According to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, which tracks security issues in the country, insurgent attacks were up by 50 per cent in the first half of this year. About 3,200 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgent attacks this year.

The insurgent violence has left Afghan authorities concerned about security at upcoming celebrations for the country's Independence Day celebrations on Monday. They've called in more than 7,000 officers to secure Kabul. Kandahar's provincial police chief says he will also beef up security in the province, which is the base for most of Canada's 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan.

With files from The Canadian Press

Christie Deals With "Is It Worth It?"

The Globe's Christie Blatchford looks at the charitable efforts of Maureen Eykelenboom—mother of Cpl. Andrew Eykelenboom, a Canadian medic killed in Afghanistan in 2006—whose organization has so far donated $128,000 to the Assistance to Afghanistan fund. Blatchford's impression has always been of a "resolutely composed" woman, "seeming if not quite cheerful, always sanguine." But after a recent trip to Afghanistan to view the fruits of her and her son's labour, Blatchford reports Eykelenboom finally became "alive to the enormity of her loss and the grief she had kept at bay with the work and travel." After all, Blatchford notes, for her and other parents of fallen soldiers, the question of "is it worth it?" takes on a particular poignancy.

The Weather Was Beautiful For A Protest March.....

......anyone know or care what the weather was like in Kandahar?

There are protests this weekend demanding an end to the military mission in Afghanistan. What do you think should happen next?

Stay the course		5564 votes	(61 %)
End combat role in Kandahar		1688 votes	(18 %)
Withdraw completely		1901 votes	(21 %)
Total Votes: 9153 Anti-war demos call for end to Afghan mission

Has Anything Been Accomplished In Afganhistan?

Khorshied Samad: Upholding a promise to Afghanistan's women

Posted: March 08, 2008, 2:50 PM by Marni Soupcoff

Show Some Backbone, Dion Told
Liberal leader Stephane Dion was heckled by anti-war protesters in Toronto yesterday, and urged to "show some backbone" by voting against extending the Canadian mission in Afghanistan.

I Don't Want Dion Moving Into My Neighborhood....

.....especially if a bully moves next door.

Dion's ploy will get soldiers killed
by Rosie DiManno

Rookie Dion still looks like he's not ready for prime time
by Chantal Hébert

Dion devising Afghan plan

Harper Made A Grave Error When He Sent Canadian Troops To Afganhistan

Oops! I forgot he can't take credit for that.......

Keep Pearson out of it TheStar.com - columnists - Keep Pearson out of it

February 05, 2008

Linda McQuaig

The Harper government's flagging campaign to sell Canadians on extending our combat mission in Afghanistan has clearly found new legs since the release last month of the pro-war Manley report.

The turnaround moment probably came at a press briefing when John Manley, head of the government's advisory panel on Afghanistan, defended the mission by invoking the name of Canadian peacekeeping hero Lester Pearson.

Since Canadians have tended to associate Afghanistan with torture and a cowboy-style "war on terror," the invocation of Pearson's name – from fellow Liberal Manley – was highly potent.

It was also absurd, even preposterous – like invoking Abe Lincoln as a nation-building forerunner of George W. Bush.

Indeed, Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, argues that Manley's attempt to place Pearson's mantle on the Afghan mission amounts to a "real desecration of (Pearson's) memory and his monumental achievement for world peace."

Boyle says that he's made his students study the UN peacekeeping model devised by Pearson for the Suez Crisis of 1956. "It was the first, and the model for all that came after it ... Pearson richly deserved his Nobel Peace Prize."

"How dare Manley invoke his name," Boyle continued. "The offensive use of military force (in Afghanistan) bears no similarity at all to Pearson's peacekeeping force in the Sinai, which was genuine and legitimate peacekeeping."

The notion of the Afghan mission as a moral, legal war pervades the Manley report. Contrasting it to the invasion of Iraq, Manley portrays the intervention in Afghanistan as a law-abiding, UN-authorized venture. But Boyle says that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were both illegal under international law, in that neither received Security Council approval.

The Manley report implies that the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan was endorsed by the Security Council, but Boyle notes that the Security Council resolution cited by Manley in no way authorized military action. Rather, it called for the perpetrators of 9/11 to be brought to justice – suggesting they be dealt with as criminals through extradition and the judicial system, not war.

After invading Afghanistan and toppling the government, Washington won UN authorization for the new government it installed, and for its ongoing intervention through NATO. As a result, the U.S. presence in Afghanistan – like the one in Iraq – now has "a veneer of UN authority," notes Osgoode Hall law professor Michael Mandel.

Manley has long been a proponent of closer relations with the U.S., and he and his panellists met with top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Yet the Manley report avoids any suggestion that Ottawa's involvement in Afghanistan is about pleasing the Bush administration, which is widely disliked in Canada.

Indeed, the Manley report makes Washington all but disappear, emphasizing the UN and NATO, and Canada's role within NATO.

But NATO is just a military alliance ultimately run by Washington. Indeed, since it came into being in 1950, NATO has always been headed by a U.S. general (currently John Craddock).

In addition to NATO forces in Afghanistan, there are another 13,000 U.S. troops under direct U.S. command. This means that all troops serving in Afghanistan are ultimately under commander-in-chief George W. Bush, whose shadow looms large over the country.

But in urging Canadians to keep fighting over there, Manley somehow found it more relevant to mention the name Lester B. Pearson.

Average Joe Weighs In On Taliban Jack's Position

Layton wants new direction for Afghanistan mission

.......read the comments

Why Bother Stephen.......The Left Will Not Listen

Critics say Harper creating ‘fog over information’
Since getting a tongue-lashing from the Manley panel, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has offered a mea culpa of sorts for not being open enough with the Canadian public about what's going on in Afghanistan, and he has promised to try to do better

Afghanistan update.

For an update on the continual struggles of the citizens of Afghanistan against suicide bombers that kill their victims at prayers, and the rest of the 'glorious resistance' against ' the crusader/Christians', visit Terry Glavin one of the more rational commentators on the subject,

Here Are The Facts........

Harper says 'right' not 'politically popular' will decide Afghan mission
Canada's future in Afghanistan will not be decided based on what is politically popular, the prime minister vowed Friday, but on "what is right."

Harper praises Manley report in speech to Tories
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Manley report on Afghanistan was strong, balanced and realistic, but did not indicate whether he would follow its recommendations.

An Insight Into Afganistan

Jonathan Kay on one of the best articles ever to be written about the war in Afghanistan
Posted: December 09, 2007, 12:03 AM by Jonathan Kay
Filed under: Jonathan Kay

The January, 2008 issue of Vanity Fair has an extraordinary article about the war in Afghanistan by Sebastian Unger, who embedded earlier this year in the singularly violent Korengal Valley with a platoon from Battle Company, part of the Second Battaltion of America's 503rd Infantry Regiment (airborne).

To read this article is to appreciate that thousands of American troops in Afghanistan are facing conditions as bad, or worse, than our own Canadian fighters. The portrayal of day-to-day life at a front-line firebase in this area of eastern Afghanistan is truly terrifying.

Reading the article, one simultaneously is filled with (1) admiration for the amazingly skilled, brave and humane American soldiers taking the fight to the Taliban in this part of Afghanistan; and (2) despairing of our chances of winning a war in a country where it seems so easy for terrorists to stir up local outrage at Western forces. Good soldiers like those of Battle Company can fight bravely and effectively, day in day out for months, killing dozens, or even hundereds, of bad guys and protecting the whole area while aid pours in. But let them slip up once and kill civilians being used as shields by the bad guys, and the whole valley declares jihad.

Unger makes a strong case that the Americans are doing a million times better than the Russians did in the 1980s, when they killed anything that moved, and thereby made enemies everywhere. But even so, the Afghan war may ultimately prove a failed effort for the simple reason that the traditional Muslim tribesmen in the country's rural areas can be whipped up against any Western force on the flimsiest of pretexts. That's a cultural fact, not a military one. And so the finest soldiers in the world may not be able to change it.

jkay@nationalpost.com

It Was/Is The Same As Here......

......except here it is Afghanistan but the message we send to the troops is the same.