[Peace-discuss] Who are we defending in Afghanistan?

[Ricky Baldwin]

Considering the length and the source, I think this is
pretty damn good.  Sometimse we forget about
Afghanistan.  We shouldn't.

-Ricky


Who Are We Defending in Afghanistan?
September 8, 2006

In recent months, Canadians have been the recipients
of a fierce selling-job on our military’s role in
Afghanistan. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has claimed
our mission is both honourable and just, and I have no
doubt this echoes the sentiments of our troops.

Prime Minister Harper has said Canada won’t “cut and
run” in Afghanistan, and suggested other “weak-kneed”
parliamentarians fall in line. Hordes of pundits have
agreed, and suggested dissenters are damaging our
troops’ morale and Canada’s role in the “War on
Terrorism.”

Canadians have seen this movie before. It went
something like: “you’re either with us, or you’re with
the terrorists.” Currently, that view of foreign
policy earns about 36% support of the US electorate.
Surely Canadians deserve a better explanation about
why we’ve committed to our largest military deployment
in 50 years.

Simply put, Prime Minister, whose interests are we
defending in Afghanistan?

I am told it is a democratically-elected government
engaged in a war with “brutal insurgents.”

Many human rights groups have begged to differ,
however, and it is time Canadians got a fuller
appreciation of this story.

Human Rights Watch authored a chilling report called
Blood Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and
Afghanistan’s Legacy of Impunity. The Senalis Council
in Britain followed with its own study, Canada in
Kandahar: No Peace to Keep. Carol Off produced a
thought-provoking documentary on CBC’s The National in
March 2006 entitled The Warlords Take Office. 

All of these studies reveal disturbing information
most Afghanis know well, and when the lives of
Canadian soldiers are on the line, it’s best not to
mince words. 

At the moment, Canada is sending its troops to support
a parliament that is already half-dominated by
drug-trafficking warlords, many of whom have committed
atrocities against their own people during
Afghanistan’s civil war in the early 1990s. 

These warlords – like Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is now
Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of Defence – killed
thousands of innocent Afghanis, and now drape
themselves in the language of democracy. 

Making matters worse, billions of dollars in
development funds pledged by nations worldwide have
gone missing, while palatial homes and posh
developments are under construction in Kabul, many of
which are connected to warlords in parliament.

The US military strategy adopted by NATO hasn’t
brought peace, reduced poverty, stopped heroin
production, or helped reconstruct Afghanistan. 

Over 1,600 Afghanis have died in the last four months
alone. The heroin trade is fielding a bumper crop.
Afghanis are mired in terrible poverty, while brothels
have sprung up in abundance to service foreign
contractors in Kabul.

In these conditions, it is hardly surprising that an
Afghan resistance movement has emerged. These forces,
which include Taliban elements, refer to Hamid Karzai
as “the mayor of Kabul”, or “assistant to the American
ambassador”. They are increasingly supported by
Afghanis grown weary from NATO and Karzai’s broken
promises.

That’s right Prime Minister. At the moment, our
military isn’t fighting the forces of corruption,
violence and the heroin trade. We’re supporting them,
and this is never told to the thousands of Canadian
soldiers sent to the battlegrounds of Kandahar. 

But don’t take my word for it. Talk to Malalai Joya,
the Afghan parliamentarian who has faced death threats
for daring to spotlight the abuses perpetrated daily
by warlords in the Karzai regime.  

Prime Minster, I fully support our troops, that’s why
I don’t want them engaged in a fight that only
benefits a government chock full of despots and
heroin-runners. I urge you again to heed the words of
Malalai Joya, who had this to say about the prospects
for peace in her country:

“The situation in Afghanistan and conditions for women
will not change positively until the warlords have
been disarmed and both the pro-US and anti-US
terrorists are removed from the political scene in
Afghanistan. And it is the responsibility of the
Afghan people to accomplish this goal.”

Ken Georgetti is president of the Canadian Labour
Congress, the largest trade union federation in
Canada, representing three million workers.

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