The Commons: Transparent contradictions
By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 15, 2010 - 91 Comments
The Scene. The Liberal leader furrowed his brow. Michael Ignatieff had tried twice to gain some kind of clarity from the Foreign Affairs Minister and twice Lawrence Cannon, sticking to the script set out on the desk in front of him, had provided only the vaguest of notions.
“Mr. Speaker, these answers are genuinely absurd,” Mr. Ignatieff ventured with his third opportunity. “We are five days away from the Lisbon summit and the government is unable to stand in the House and tell us exactly what the post-2011 combat mission looks like.”
He gesticulated with both hands, putting on a surrealist puppet show to explain the confusion. ”How can the government explain this silence,” he begged, “how can it explain its improvisation, how can it explain its secrecy, how can it explain its lack of transparency with the Canadian people?”
His eyebrows jumped toward the ceiling as he finished.
With that asked, Mr. Cannon stood here to make a daring claim to seriousness. “Mr. Speaker,” he said, “we have been repeatedly clear on this particular issue.” Continue…
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Capt. Robert Semrau dismissed from the Forces
By Michael Friscolanti - Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 12:23 PM - 0 Comments
Canadian soldier avoids jail time for shooting a wounded insurgent in Afghanistan (Updated)
[Updated: October 6, 7:21 a.m.]A Canadian soldier has been kicked out of the army—but spared a stint in prison—for shooting a severely wounded insurgent on the battlefields of Afghanistan two years ago. Capt. Robert Semrau, whose controversial case sparked a nationwide debate about the ethics of mercy killing in a war zone, stood at the front of a packed courtroom Tuesday morning as a military judge announced his punishment: a demotion in rank, and dismissal from the Forces.
Semrau—who at one point faced the possibility of life behind bars, with no chance of parole for ten years—will not serve jail time for his “disgraceful conduct.” But his career in uniform is now over. “You failed in your role as a leader,” said the judge, Lt.-Col. Jean-Guy Perron. “How can we expect our soldiers to follow the rules of war if their officers do not?”
Countless Canadians have rallied behind Semrau since his arrest, convinced that he did the moral thing by putting a gravely injured insurgent “out of his misery” (a Facebook page set up in his honour has thousands of members). But Perron painted a very different portrait of the 36-year-old officer, saying he violated the military’s most basic rules of discipline and no longer deserves to serve. “Shooting a wounded, unarmed insurgent is so fundamentally contrary to our values, doctrine and training that it is shockingly unacceptable behaviour,” Perron said, pausing often to look Semrau in the eyes. “You made a decision that will cast a shadow on you for the rest of your life.” Continue…
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Still crazy?
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 6:04 PM - 0 Comments
As we approach the four-year anniversary of Jack Layton saying that really crazy thing, General David Petraeus speaks with Fox News about the way forward in Afghanistan.
Karzai has offered a list of conditions Taliban fighters must meet to be a part of Afghanistan’s future — accept the constitution, lay down weapons, cut ties to Al Qaeda and become productive or participating members of society. If those “redlines” are met, Petraeus said he doesn’t see “why you would not support reconciliation.”
“We sat down across the table in Iraq from individuals who had our blood on their hands. That’s what was done in northern Ireland. It’s what’s done in just about any insurgency as you get to the end stages of it,” he said. “If there’s a willingness of those at the high-levels to do that, and they do indeed agree to the safeguards. … then certainly you would want to reconcile,” he said.
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Defeat
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 27, 2009 at 12:42 PM - 7 Comments
Stephen Harper, Feb. 21. “Well, I think a lot of people in the past have been suggesting that, you know, victory is the complete defeat of the insurgency and the replacement of a failed state in Afghanistan with a modern liberal democracy. I don’t think that’s realistic. I think what we should be aiming for in Afghanistan is a viable state that respects, you know, obviously some democratic norms, but I think ultimately the insurgency will last a long time. Afghanistan, through most of its history has been an untamed country. So I think the idea we’re going to wipe out an insurgency is completely unrealistic.”
Stephen Harper, Mar. 1. “We’re not going to win this war just by staying. We’re not going to — in fact, my own judgment, Fareed, is, quite frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency. Afghanistan has probably had — my reading of Afghanistan history, it’s probably had an insurgency forever, of some kind. What has to happen in Afghanistan is, we have to have an Afghan government that is capable of managing that insurgency and improving its own governance.”
Barack Obama, today. “I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That is the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you … to defeat an enemy that heeds no borders or laws of war, we must recognize the fundamental connection between the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan … There is an uncompromising core of the Taliban. They must be met with force, and they must be defeated … we will use all elements of our national power to defeat al Qaeda, and to defend America, our allies, and all who seek a better future.”
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How to beat an insurgency by killing fewer people
By Michael Petrou - Monday, March 2, 2009 at 2:18 PM - 0 Comments
I wrote this article about tackling the Afghan insurgency for our website.
