Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts
13 March 2008
Canada - Afghanistan: I weep
How sick did it make me to see the picture of S. Harper standing, smiling, with his cronies cheering in the background in the House of Commons. So they challenged the Liberal party of Canada to a game of Chicken, and they won. They won on the backs, on the lives of Canadian military personnel and Afghan citizens. The citizens of the world have become pawns on the slippery, oil soaked game board of power and greed. This form of 'democracy' has got to go. What does it mean anymore to measure public opinion, except perhaps to count exactly how many people you've just thumbed your nose at and done what you want anyway?
23 January 2008
Oh Canada!
Stephen Harper's panel on the Canadian Afghanistan military mission has reported. Here's my reaction to this particular bit, quoted from today's Vancouver Sun newspaper (Arm-twist NATO: Manley - Mike Blanchfield, Canwest):
The report also talks about 'defining' or 'refining' the goal of the mission. Hello? At the cost of close to 80 lives of Canadian military members and countless Afghan citizens we can talk about defining and refining our goals? That aside, back to the above quote. Squandering our investment? Dishonouring our sacrifice? I believe in my bones that the greatest dishonour to the sacrifice of lives on both sides (but from my perspective as a Canadian-particularly the lives of Canadian military) is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In case you've never heard it before, that's the definition of insanity! So we'll sacrifice more of the same, in the same manner, with the same results. Do we consider the abbreviated lives of all these men and women to be an 'investment'. If we're going to use that language of finance, what's the return on that particular investment? How does that manage to 'appreciate'? I don't have an answer for that. I'm pretty sure all those 'experts' don't either.
Manley said Canada's efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan cannot be completed by February 2009 and there is no "operational logic" to pulling troops out on that date. An immediate withdrawal would "squander our investment and dishonour our sacrifice to date."
The report also talks about 'defining' or 'refining' the goal of the mission. Hello? At the cost of close to 80 lives of Canadian military members and countless Afghan citizens we can talk about defining and refining our goals? That aside, back to the above quote. Squandering our investment? Dishonouring our sacrifice? I believe in my bones that the greatest dishonour to the sacrifice of lives on both sides (but from my perspective as a Canadian-particularly the lives of Canadian military) is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In case you've never heard it before, that's the definition of insanity! So we'll sacrifice more of the same, in the same manner, with the same results. Do we consider the abbreviated lives of all these men and women to be an 'investment'. If we're going to use that language of finance, what's the return on that particular investment? How does that manage to 'appreciate'? I don't have an answer for that. I'm pretty sure all those 'experts' don't either.
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