The Glaring Omission in Mr. Taylor’s August 28, 2007 mission statement in the Abbotsford Post is any Afghanistan mission statement demonstrating that this is a War worth fighting and not merely “a war of politicians and politics”.
The Valium of self-delusion Mr. Taylor speaks of would appear to have been administered to himself.
Afghanistan was not who attacked the US on 9/11 but terrorists. Being in Afghanistan, helping the US to pursue its anti-drug policies in wiping out the opium crop (from which heroin is made) upon which Afghani farmers depend for cash to live on and killing innocent civilians, does nothing but create enemies and more terrorists.
Fools rush in where wise men know better than to tread.
If we are unwilling to treat our addicts and help them into recovery, insisting on pursuing a foolish policy of ignoring capitalism and market forces via reducing demand through addiction recovery, there is no need to compound the foolishness by creating enemies – the farmers will be happy to sell their crop to us and don’t care if we then destroy it.
Wise men know that a terrorist in Afghanistan is not a threat to us in Canada – until someone bankrolls the terrorists thus allowing them to travel from Afghanistan to Canada, hide within Canada preparing their strike and providing the materials needed to commit terrorist atrocities.
Wise men know you go for those who bankroll the terrorists.
But Saudi Arabia is a friend of the Bush family and the US government; is extremely wealthy and generous to their friends; and controls the Saudi oil fields. Afghanistan is poor, unable to buy friends and influence.
He is correct on one point and both right and wrong on another. He is correct that the troops deserve our support and while correct that a firm withdrawal date should not be set, his implication that we should condemn our troops to an indefinite stay, suffering bleeding to death from a thousand cuts is criminal and flawed.
The bitter pill our troops must swallow is that they were betrayed by their government. Worse is the fact that this betrayal was perpetrated on them by a minority Government – the minority Conservative government who, while able to send our forces into harms way, had no ethical or moral right to commit out dedicated forces personnel to shedding their blood and lives in a purposeless and unjust war.
As the words of John Stewart Mills quoted by Mr. Taylor make clear – “war is an ugly thing” and if we are to be “willing to fight” and ask our forces to shed their blood, it must be a “moral” cause “more important than personal safety” and “worth war”.
The Balkan’s ethnic cleansing was. The Sudan with its genocide would be. Foolishness, political opportunism and cronyism are not.
A War of Politics and Politicians is not a war worth our nation’s treasure and blood, it is an ugly thing we should never have been involved in and that ethics demand we disengage from.