Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

By the way

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 1:12pm - 29 Comments

Glen Pearson writes of Afghanistan.

The effects of Canada’s pull-out on the ground will likely result in other participating nations taking similar steps. Soon enough all the talk about the kids going to school, the highly effective nature of women’s programs supported by Canada, and our commitment to training new leaders for the future will be things of the past. They will surely be replaced by empty school classrooms, murdered women’s leaders who, having sided with the NATO forces to bring about change, will be inevitably targeted by the Taliban for that endorsement. The dark days are returning, with the politicians more concerned with how it will effect the vote in Canada rather than the lives in Afghanistan. Somebody in Ottawa better start talking about this quick, before the hope of keeping any kind of development and security presence there diminishes altogether.

Tags: Afghanistan, Canada, military, NATO

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hosertohoosier

I think the attempt to build a democracy in Afghanistan was a mistake. The civil society necessary for a democracy was simply not there – in contrast with the oft-cited successes in Japan and Germany (both of which were advanced countries with a legacy of democracy).

Moreover, if we were going to build a democracy, including the Taliban was a necessity. The Taliban are not just an ideological/spiritual movement, they are primarily a Pashtun movement. Jack Layton may have been right about bringing the Taliban in.

Ultimately the occupation force aimed too high. It tried to establish a democracy AND to eradicate the Taliban – goals that ultimately conflicted with each other. It would have been plausible to back some warlord, and help him fight the Taliban – sacrificing the promise of democracy, but preventing Afghanistan from being a breeding ground for terrorism. Alternately, we could have brought the Taliban into the fold – you can't exclude an ethnicity from the task of governance.

If the pullout of a few thousand Canadians will result in the collapse of Afghanistan, we shouldn't wait for 2011 – we should pull out now. Ten years and billions of dollars have clearly failed to either pacify the country or create a working democracy. The Taliban is growing more successful, not less (2009 was the bloodiest year of the war, and 2010 continues at roughly the same pace). Additional troops from the US and a new strategy have not succeeded, and only the fact that the anti-war movement does not want to go after its man in Washington has prevented protests.

Geopolitically, Afghanistan is an irrelevant backwater. At least Iraq had oil. The blood and treasure being lost there is desperately needed to fix the US economy, and to retool in order to meet a threat from a rising China. The US doesn't need more Arabic language specialists and counterinsurgency experts, it needs an invincible navy, next-generation airpower (the bulk of US strategic bombers are B-52's), and defences against Chinese cruise missiles and anti-satellite missiles. The era of optional wars are over.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

There is a realistic way.. you get enough people who live there to believe "This isn't the way" and you marginalize the Taliban to no more than any fringe group we see here in Canada.

That's part of why this detainee issue is so important. We need to be visible examples of "This isn't the way" and that our way works.
Amateur Hour

The natural consequence of challenge government Ministers' statements (and evasions) in the House these days — and discussing the effectiveness of the Government policies our troops are asked to implement — is to accuse the questioner of being anti-military.
common man

Try this Thwim:
Suppose there had been no Afghan detainees. Suppose the NATO troops had a policy where any Afghan troops who were captured were immediately released back into the mountains. Suppose both the Taliban and Afghan civilians were to observe this for 10 years and conclude……..my, how civilized those Canadians are.
So what would the result be……for one thing there would be a heck of a lot more than 140 dead Canadians, but do you really think the Afghans with the guns (The Taliban ) would be any less cruel to their own people then they were prior to 2001 ? Please don`t be so naive to suggest they will observe our civilized actions and act in similar fashion.
Here`s your biggest mistake: The problem isn`t the Afghan civilians and how they view the example set by the Canadian troops. The problem is the Taliban leaders who have no interest in what the civilians think of them; they won`t change no matter if you send Clay Ruby over there to represent them, and they won`t be sending thank-you cards to you and Rae and Dosanjh.