March 13, 2006

Ever since the Globe and Mail’s highly political and partisan pollster Allan Gregg (the only one who had the Conservatives winning a majority right up til election day - as per the Globe’s endorsement) discovered that 61% of Canadians questioned our involvement in Afghanistan, the pro-war elite in this country has been pulling all the stops to reverse those numbers.

We need to keep the numbers where they are - where Canadian values say they should be.

Again...especially for all the new word warriors who have joined in recent months - word warriors is about writing short, pointed, focussed letter to the editor of your local paper. If you want to copy the national papers or larger regional papers that’s good, too. Email addresses for letters to the editor can always be found on a paper's web site - or by phoning their office.

Write a short letter reminding your fellow citizens that we are not part of the US effort to secure Middle East oil for the American juggernaut. It is not the job of the young men and women in the Canadian armed forces to die helping to implement US foreign policy. It is their job to carry out Canada’s foreign policy as decided by parliament - not by Stephen Harper.

The most important message RIGHT NOW is that there must be a full debate on Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Some points to raise - along with your own, of course...

• Who does Stephen Harper think he is - President of Canada? He goes over and stand with our soldiers and says - using the same words as George Bush - Canada “won’t cut and run.” From what? We never committed to taking on the resurgent Taliban. That was NOT the mission Canadians accepted - reluctantly - to support. When we first went there we were to help stabilize the country so it could rebuilt.

• The US soldiers we are replacing in Southern Afghanistan will soon be killing Iraqis. That’s not acceptable to most Canadians.

• Every time our soldiers engage the Taliban or Al Qaeda it is noted by those making up the list of possible and deserving terrorist attacks. Thanks Mr. Harper. We are now decisively on that list as Arab television beams your smiling face from Afghanistan to every other corner of the Muslim world.

• There is no more dramatic nor lasting impression a country can make than to be at war in a froeign country. It is not the way Canadians want to be known around the world.

• Harper seems to think he has the unfettered power to declare war without the permission and approval of Parliament - in fact, not even a debate where the horrible implications of this involvement can be fully debated and Canadian fully informed.

• Canada’s real role in Afghanistan is to appease the US for our decision to not send troops to Iraq. No one ever asked Canadians if they wanted to send our soldiers into a counter-insurgency role just to please George Bush.

• Prime Minister Harper must explain what he hopes to accomplish in a country that has resisted and eventually thrown out every foreign interventionist force that ever tried to “stabilize” it - no matter what the stated reason. The simple fact is that they do not want us, have no use for nor interest in our form of democracy and will never accept help they didn’t ask for.

• Harper visiting Afghanistan is as much for American consumption in Washington - the White House and the Congress - as it is for Canadian consumption. It is a signal that this prime minister is going to be a good boy. He doesn’t speak for me.

• No one voted in the last election to turn Canada’s armed forces and its historic peace-making and peace-keeping role into a war-fighting army. The fact is the only wars we are ever likely to fight are overseas - the ones started by the US and which we will then be invited to join or be called lousy friends.

• Follow the money. This advice is just as good when it comes to Afghanistan as it is whenever we look for explanations of bad things happening. The Canadian defence industries are drooling over the possibilities of more spending on hardware - and what better way to get new contracts than to have equipment wear out or get destroyed in a war. They lost out in Iraq - this time they are determined to get “in” - and Stephen Harper is their ticket.

• Let’s get out before we start setting targets for the number of body bags coming home - instead of after. It is a certainty that we would not only save Canadian lives but Afghani lives as well.