Reflection of Time Gone

Doing What's Right, General Chit Chat, Random Thoughts Comments (0)

I doubt if there is anyone who isn’t aware that today is the 5th year since the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York or that the result has been the invasion of Afghanistan and the toppling of the Taliban regime there. No one I suspect is unaware that the cause of the invasion was that the Taliban refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden and as such were considered to be harboring this mastermind of the bombings.

However today we have heard a lot of speechs, a lot of words that are perhaps said differently but with the same defiance and cockiness of five years ago. Unfortunately a lot has changed in these five years, and frankly the issue isn’t so much that the war in Afghanistan was necessary, but that it isn’t successful. Despite Stephen Harper’s rhetoric or George Bush’s bluster.

Harper asserted that because of Canada’s contribution to the coalition effort in Afghanistan the Taliban were in retreat, the status of women in the country has improved, and crucial infrastructure was being built or rebuilt. ( full CBC article )

Once again the likeness of Harper’s tactics and Bush is eeriely similar. Today Harper included in his speech relatives of Troops killed in Afghanistan and those serving there as well. It is hypocritical of this man to use their loss to try and make his case. It is a tactic worthy of someone like Bin Laden, but not the leader of a civilized nation. Least in my view. But that aside, the issue is that the Taliban are on the rise and that violence within Afghanistan is ever increasing.

I am not advocating we cut and run like some Democrat, but I am suggesting that we re-examine how we are prosecuting this war. It seems to me that if the people are still willing to support this group, then we need to find ways to alter that support. I think perhaps that guns and bombs are not the full answer here. And again I will remind all who will listen of what Jean Chretien stated in his refusal to join Bush in the American Invasion of Iraq. That until we address the poverty, change is not going to happen nor will it be long lasting. People who have to fight for food, for clothing, for life itself, are easy targets for those who promise them something better.

Like it or not, the Taliban and other such groups promise just that. They use religion as a way of gaining a hearing, and then just as the relgious right do here, they hammer home that GOD is going to look after them. They toss in some hard cash and then point to women walking in dresses, or with their ankles uncovered and they score success. It is their way to not glamorize women, and for us, that might be crazy, nuts and stupid but it is THEIR WAY. Who are we to come in and say different?

Yet we do and that is one major reason why groups like the Taliban are growing. People should have the right to choose, that is called not just freedom, but Free Will. It is something that GOD gave mankind, and who are we to object to HIS will? Yet we do when we attempt to force our views on another nation through arms and invasion. I happen to support the need for our forces in Afghanistan. I think we had to be there, just as we had to let all those planes land and take in the pasengers. Would have been nice if America had appreciated that act then, not five years later, but I think we did it because it was the right thing to do. Would we do it again?

I would hope so.

What I don’t agree with is that in going after those responsible we are willing to put aside the very values and morals that make us different, make us more humane than the Osama’s of the world. We are blurring the line because a man elected elsewhere deems it necessary and our own Prime Minister sees no cause for alarm. Just as the United States falsified the death toll in Iraq, Stephen Harper is claiming a victory in Afghanistan. At the same time he spouts his bullshit, the NATO command is seeking more troops to help quell the resurging Taliban.

If we truly are winning, why do we need more troops?

Frankly it is this time of poltical games that makes winning the war on Terrorism doubtful. Let us be honest and I think Stephen Harper and George Bush would be surprised. I doubt that many voters are so stupid that they can’t see thru the falsehoods these two spew forth. In the past Canada has been an honest broker in the marketplace of peace and negotiation. For brief stints during Mulroney times, this nation has always had respect from others, and once more, just like in the Mulroney era, we are rapidly losing that creditability, thanks to our leaders love affair with the occupant of the White House. Mulroney with George Senior and Harper with Bush Junior.

“We are a country that has always accepted its responsibility in the world,” Harper said, referring to Canada’s participation in the two world wars and conflicts in Korea and the Balkans. ( full story )

While Mr Harper makes reference to it, he forgets the most important facit of our world committment. He forgets that we do what is right, not what the United States wants. It is that independent thinking that has made us a force in helping ease international tensions, thanks in large part to leaders who understood that. Leaders like Pearson, MacKenzie King, Trudeau.

Has the world changed in the last five years? Absolutely.

THe problem is that while we call the Taliban repressive and a throwback to the dark ages, our own land is under the same type of hysteria that these regimes or groups use. Just as the Taliban ignore International Laws or Saadam Hussein, or the regime in Iran, so to does our own current crop of leaders. Bush has ignored the US Constitution so many times it is  rapidly becoming a forgotten document. War is not the same as peace, but the laws that govern a nation in peace are still needed even in wartime. To ignore those laws now, makes us no different that those we call evil, call the Axis of Evil actually.
Fear is not eased, no matter how many poor nations the mighty West invades. Iraq is a bloodbath and Afghanistan is rapidly following suit. Yet all we get from Harper and Bush is rhetoric and grandstanding plays. Doing what is right is not easy, nor is it always politically viable, but it is what is required. We need to address the issues that these people face daily, and help them in their ways, not ours. If women are supposed to be kept under wraps, then lets not send our female soldiers there. Let us at least show some respect, because they are not going to like us, until they respect us. By throwing our culture in their face, in their homeland, is an insult and it drives them to groups like the Taliban. If we really want their support, then at least try to meet them half way or more. After all it is their country, no matter which nation’s troops stand on guard on the streets.

If Harper wants to act like a statesmen, then perhaps he could start by being honest. The Taliban are not on the decline, and our troops will and must remain there, until we can help those who live there, take their own destiny in hand. We can’t do that if we are insulting them and ignoring the problems they live with each day. Poverty must be addressed, not just mouthed. That is reality, that is what we still haven’t learned, Five Long Years Later. 

Ian @ September 11, 2006