|
Word Warriors Demand Canadian troop withdrawal from Afghanistan January 29, 2008 This one is urgent and critical. It could all come down to a vote within a couple of weeks or less. All the efforts you and other Canadians have made to end this insanity in Afghanistan could soon be decided. It is critical that all of you write a letter declaring your total opposition to Canada’s involvement in the occupation of Afghanistan. The Manley Report is - as the Rideau Institute’s Steve Staples says - nothing more than a license for Harper to continue the war indefinitely with no change in the mission mandate. All it should require, says Manley (a key Liberal figure in the deep integration initiative since it was first conceived) is that 1) we get 1000 more NATO troops and 2) some helicopters and 3) a few unmanned surveillance aircraft.. That’s it - no need for any ‘benchmarks’ of success of the ‘mission,’ no clarification of what the hell we are doing there at all, no mention that we never went there to fight the Taliban in the first place, and no change in the ‘war-fighting’ nature of the mission, no suggestion of talking to the Taliban to get a diplomatic solution. Write a short pointed, forceful letter demanding that Canadian troops be withdrawn. Or, minimally, if you don’t feel you can go that far, demand that our mission be redefined to reflect its original purpose - to stabilize a country and help it rebuild. SPECIAL NOTE: While our purpose is still to flood newspapers with as many letters as possible in this case it is also important to flood the office of Stephane Dion with emails demanding that the Liberal Party vote ‘no’ to the extension of the mission as planned by Stephen Harper. (The NDP and Bloc are already committed to voting against the government.) Harper is clearly hoping to suck Dion into this extension and Dion is very vulnerable to this. Dion is in favour of extending Canada’s involvement beyond 2009 BUT opposes the extension of the Kandahar combat mission beyond 2009. He has to know that caving in to Harper’s plan to maintain the status-quo with no time limit will hurt him politically. His email address is: Dion.S@parl.gc.ca FRAMING: We need to attack the Manley report as unbalanced, put together by a panel of Conservative and Liberal hawks whose position was known before they were appointed, and whose mild criticism of Harper’s style is just mild political camouflage for an unlimited extension of war against the Taliban. And we need to focus our attention on Dion. This was never Canada’s war, the war itself cannot be won, we have no clear purpose, the $100 million a month we are spending so distorts our foreign policy capacity that now have little presence any where else in the world. Here are some points to make - a PLEASE remember to write this in your own words. Better a short, original letter than a longer one which looks like a form letter. * Make the political threat explicit - if Dion backs down from his position that the Kandahar mission must end he will pay a political price at the polls. * Use any or all of the arguments you know by heart for getting out of this terrible, destructive conflict:
* Point out that Manley’s report does NOT change the mission (as Harper may have hoped he would to help him get Liberal support. As Steve Staples says: “Manley was clear that training did not mean abandoning combat - a central Liberal demand. As well, there was no mention of reducing or moving troops from Kandahar, another key Liberal demand.” And then pose the question: How can Dion and the Liberals possibly support an extension of the mandate under these conditions? If they do - it will be the final proof that there is no difference between Dion and Harper. * Praise the NDP and the Bloc for their principled stand - a reminder to the Liberals of where the anti-war votes will go is they don’t stand firm. |
||||
|
TAKE ACTION!
|
|
||||
 |
updated
January 29, 2008
|
||||
