Canada should pull its troops out of Afghanistan

[Karlin]

Article:[u] Canada should pull its troops out of Afghanistan[/u]
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=352

It is not in our interest to put our young men and women in harm's way in a struggle that will not be won

but if thats not enough, try on the bigger picture, as shown to us by Mark Twain:

In 1900, Mark Twain wrote a warning about phony humanitarianism that rings true today. "I said to myself," wrote Twain, about the American intervention in the Philippines a century ago, "here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves."

"But I have thought some more, since then and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

"And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."

And thats what Canada is involved in. We went there to hand out water and give encouragement, now we are killing them off.

What changed is our national leader, now being brown of nose with the scent of BushCo, Harper the Hump for the military industrial fossil fools soceity.

Cynicism over the nature of the Canadian-Afghan mission is appropriate, as the corporate interests there - oil and pipelines - are the real reason the west is there at all.

As has been pointed out - if we were all about saving lives we would be in Sudan where our efforts would count for something good, not something "not well understood", as the Afghanistan mission is.

Karlin

 

[aeon]

Article:[u] Canada should pull its troops out of Afghanistan[/u]
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=352

It is not in our interest to put our young men and women in harm's way in a struggle that will not be won

but if thats not enough, try on the bigger picture, as shown to us by Mark Twain:

In 1900, Mark Twain wrote a warning about phony humanitarianism that rings true today. "I said to myself," wrote Twain, about the American intervention in the Philippines a century ago, "here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves."

"But I have thought some more, since then and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

"And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."

And thats what Canada is involved in. We went there to hand out water and give encouragement, now we are killing them off.

What changed is our national leader, now being brown of nose with the scent of BushCo, Harper the Hump for the military industrial fossil fools soceity.

Cynicism over the nature of the Canadian-Afghan mission is appropriate, as the corporate interests there - oil and pipelines - are the real reason the west is there at all.

As has been pointed out - if we were all about saving lives we would be in Sudan where our efforts would count for something good, not something "not well understood", as the Afghanistan mission is.

Karlin

I will be even more cynical than you are, if we were all about saving lives, helping the poor, and make good things in this great world, we would do our best to do it here in canada, cause there is a lot of peoples in needs in canada,and it is growing, nope we prefer to spend way much more money on military for the other side of the planet on a war that will last 35 years?? On top of it, it wasnt our war, and we have casualties ,this is a fake war that only satisfied coorporate interests as you well said.

 

[darkbeaver]

RE: Canada should pull it

Afghanistan is begining to ruin Canada's reputation abroad, we have become mercinerys for Chenny's oil protection coalition. Nothing is getting done in Afghanistan for the people and they are increasingly targets of American serch and destroy missions.

 

[aeon]

Re: RE: Canada should pull it

Afghanistan is begining to ruin Canada's reputation abroad, we have become mercinerys for Chenny's oil protection coalition. Nothing is getting done in Afghanistan for the people and they are increasingly targets of American serch and destroy missions.

In history, people will look at us, what we did to the native indians(our territory), to the blacks peoples( our slaves), to the muslim( Oil and we want it) looks like it is far away to be over.

 

[Karlin]

We are so naive. Whereas Bush is not concerned with justifying the invasions, because he knows the real intention is oil and economic control thru oil, here we are left to argue the merits of it all.

Bush gets his motivation from his family's business circles There is a group of these ultra-wealthy families, and they know that America's economy represents much of their fortunes.

America's government then, can be used to make sure their wealth remains strong and growing stronger.

People who get elected pres of the USA are not going to be someone who doesn't care about the Bush Family, and others, fortunes. It will be that pool of money that pays for the campaigns too, either party Rep or Dems. The Clintons and the Bushs have all sorts of connections, as do all the presidents and even most of Canada's PMs. So they will get their men nominated and one of them will get elected, to serve the Family fortunes above all else.

Loyalty is thickest in blood, then oil, not democracy.

We are in Afghanistan in order to secure oil and pileline interests that will ensure America's continued domination and control of the economy of all nations thru energy.

Any notion of getting away from oil as the energy source would reduce the Bush etc Family group's ability to control things, and so at every corner where alternative fuels would come along, they are being stopped. This is why no progress is being made on global warming - the Elites are AFRAID of losing control.

So Canada should get out- of Afghanistan,and out of the Bush Family Fortune racket - we should announce our resistance to continued domination by the private family meddling in the USA government, who's foreign policy and warmongering has become too great a threat, esp when combined with global warming. Its time to take the world back.

Money is not life, and it is not a stable climate - we must choose life now.

 

[JonB2004]

I will be even more cynical than you are, if we were all about saving lives, helping the poor, and make good things in this great world, we would do our best to do it here in canada, cause there is a lot of peoples in needs in canada,and it is growing, nope we prefer to spend way much more money on military for the other side of the planet on a war that will last 35 years?? On top of it, it wasnt our war, and we have casualties ,this is a fake war that only satisfied coorporate interests as you well said.

Finally, someone I can agree with. Afghanistan is a pointless mission. We should pull our troops out of their immediately. We should be focusing on Canada and its needs before we try taking on the rest of the world.

 

[dekhqonbacha]

who is saying that there is oil in Afghanistan?

 

[dekhqonbacha]

Americans interventions to Afghanistan is not for oil but to isolite Russia and to be under the nose of growing China.

Russia is complety isolated by Americans. In Europe by Nato. In Caucasus from Turkey and Georgia. In Central Asia from Afghanistan and in Far Est from Japan and South Korea.

Afghanistan was, is and will be the place of "Great Game."

Previously, Afghansitan was in interest of GB and aTsar Russia. Each of them wanted to conquer it in order to move forward which means to India for Russian and to Central Asia by GB. Afghanistan was declered a neutral zone by those two superpowers at the time.

Now, Afghanistan is a place to poke Russia from south and to scare growing China by Americans.

The Great Game is continuing. The place is the same, but players are different.

 

[Lineman]

[quote="JonB2004
Finally, someone I can agree with. Afghanistan is a pointless mission. We should pull our troops out of their immediately. We should be focusing on Canada and its needs before we try taking on the rest of the world.[/quote]

JonB I don't disagree with you that Canada should and can be doing more at home but I fail to see why being in Afghanistan stops us from doing so. Why did we not solve these problems before 9/11, before Bush, before Martin, etc.? Right or wrong we don't seem to see them as a priority.
Failure to solve our internal problems is plain and simple a lack of will to do so by all Canadians. Can we afford to fix our problems and stay in Afghanistan? Absolutely, with the liberal and now conservative budget surpluses I'd say we can easily do both. Do we want to? Our last 20+ years says no.

 

[JonB2004]

RE: Canada should pull it

I don't want to waste our budget surpluses on the Afghan people. I want to pay down OUR debt, improve OUR health care system, etc. Until Canada fixes its problems, fuck the Afghanis.

 

[Claudius]

RE: Canada should pull it

Lineman: uh-oh. Look out. You made a reasoned realistic post.

People think of the 'global neighbourhood' as just that. A nice row of houses on a nice little street and if we can all just keep to ourselves the neighbours will do the same. Not so. It's more like a prison. There is no escape from each otehr. There is no 'closing the door and drawing the drapes'. You have allies and you have deals and you have enemies.

…unless the ‘neighbourhood’ is democratic. Ever notice how democratic nations seem to get along with all the bickering and none of the ordinance? (Europe, North America, the democratic Pacific rim, India) That’s because when people vote in a government it’s almost always exclusively on the basis of domestic issues. A chicken in every pot. Education. Day care. Taxes. That kind of stuff. They mind their own business. So I guess when people say that democracy promotes peace, I guess it’s all just a lie.


.

 

[Claudius]

RE: Canada should pull it

Until Canada fixes its problems, *censored* the Afghanis.

Oh yeah. We got it so hard. S'all just circling the drain here in Canada.

lol.

.

 

[LittleRunningGag]

Re: RE: Canada should pull it

I don't want to waste our budget surpluses on the Afghan people. I want to pay down OUR debt, improve OUR health care system, etc. Until Canada fixes its problems, *censored* the Afghanis.

And what makes Canadians so worthy of that money? That they were lucky enough to be born within these hallowed boarders? The fact is Jon, that the majority of homeless people in Canada make more money than the average Afghani, not to mention having access to clean drinking water, quality social assistance programs, guaranteed education from grades k through 10.

Everyone in Canada has the ability to pull themselves out of the mud, that is not the case for the majority of people living in Afghanistan.

Suggesting that people living in Canada deserve our help more is either ignorance or closet racism. Which is it Jon?

Oh, and in case you think that I'm kidding, just take a look at the numbers:

Afghan GDP (PPP): $21.5 bil
Canadian GDP (PPP): $$1.114 tril

Afghan GDP per capita (PPP): $800
Canadian GDP per capita (PPP): $34,000

Afghan unemplyment rate: 40%
Canadian unemplyment rate: 6.8%

Source

Do you see the disparity? Do you understand why they need our help way more than the people living inside our boarders do?

 

[LittleRunningGag]

RE: Canada should pull it

As for the war, the only reason we are in it is in support of our friend's to the south. We have treaty obligations to render assistance against foreign attacks. That is what we are there to support. It is not about helping the Afghanis back onto their feet. It is not about liberating anyone. It is about revenge. It is about a reaction to provocation.

If someone came and bombed downtown TO, or Montreal, or Vancouver, would you be in favour of hitting them back? Because I guarantee that the Americans and the British, and most of the world, would have no problem helping us.

Why? Because we have done what any country in our position would do. We stuck by our friends when they got hurt. We didn't help them when they decided to bully someone else, but we had no problem helping them hit back at they guys who hit them first. And thats the difference.

As for saying that Canada is in it for oil is just bullshit. Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world. We don't just don't have enough man power to get it all out. If we were really in it for oil, we'd be bringing back cheap labour to work our oil fields.

Honestly, what is it about you people on the extremes? You are so willing to support government interfearence in other peoples' lives, but so unwilling to believe what the government tells you. Not to mention every media outlet in the world. :roll:

 

[JonB2004]

RE: Canada should pull it

Afghanistan isn't our problem. They didn't fly any planes into buildings in Canada. So why are we there? Canada keeps giving money to Afghanistan when Canada has its own problems to deal with.

Canada comes first before the rest of the world!

 

[LittleRunningGag]

Re: RE: Canada should pull it

Canada comes first before the rest of the world!

Why?

 

[JonB2004]

RE: Canada should pull it

The Canadian government should be worrying about its people first. We pay our taxes so that we can improve OUR country. Our country is OK. In my opinion, OK isn't good enough. Lets deal with our problems before Afghanistan's.

 

[dekhqonbacha]

Jon
if the rest of the world in fire and only canada is in peace, which is not the case, the fire will reach Canada and will burn it.

And with globalization progress, the more partners you get the more business you can make. The more stabe is the world the more trade is possible to be made.

 

[Jersay]

We should be in Afghanistan like I have stated before, and before and before.

However, America can have fun in Iraq. They are really doing a good job.

LittleRunningGag raises excellent posts. Al Qaida was stationed in Afghanistan that is where the war on terror is. That is where to fight it. While Canada is on a combat mission, sugarcoating war at the moment and Canada s also there to help the Afghanis improve as Little Running Greg's statistics show.

So the money for a happy meal is leaving your wallet Jon. Canada is one of the richest nations in the world, as it deals with its last remaining problems it should and is able to help unlucky nations and people.

 

[Claudius]

Police make terrorism-related arrests in Toronto area, RCMP spokeswoman says

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060602.0602terrorarrests/BNStory/Front/home

Can't ignore it.

.