Maher Arrar, falsely accused of terrorism and deported to Syria to face torture, is still waiting for Stevie, our Dear Leader, to apologize for the actions of the Canadian government. Arar has a very good point, that if the government does not apologize to him, it means that the government does not believe that anything that was done was wrong, and it means that what happened to him is just as likely to happen to some other innocent person.
But, of course, "Canada's New Government" (I will have to have a good rant about that particular piece of bullcrap another time) is refusing to apologize. "We weren't in power then," they cry. "It wasn't our fault," they moan. All that is true, but it doesn't mean that the government is any less bound to apologize. The government of the day, no matter what political stripe, must apologize when it emerges that the government has done something for which an apology is warranted, like assisting the sending of an innocent man to the torture chambers of Syria!!
In fact, if the Conservatives had been in power then, things would have been even worse. The Conservatives, while in opposition, accused the Liberals of "siding" with an al-Qaida terrorist (by whom they meant Mr. Arrar). The Conservatives would have done even less than the Liberals to have him brought home, seeing as they appear to have tried, convicted and condemned him in their closed little minds.
The claims that the Conservative government should not be apologizing to Mr. Arrar because it was a different party in power at the time is utter nonsense. Stevie apologized earlier this year for the Chinese Head Tax, and if I recall correctly, it was the Liberals that instituted the Tax. Yet the Conservatives had no trouble apologizing and taking the credit for the apology that they were due.
Stevie must pull his head out of his ass and apologize to Maher Arrar now. It is a matter of what is right, and what Mr. Arar deserves. Canada provided the inaccurate information that saw Mr. Arrar tortured, and Ottawa stood back and didn't protest as he was shipped to Syria. The Canadian government owes Mr. Arrar an apology, and Stevie as PM of the day is the one who should be giving it.
Cheers,
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 859
Monday, September 25, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Harper Appoints Bigot Judge to Ontario Bench
The Globe and Mail is reporting that Stephen Harper has appointed David Brown to the Ontario Superior Court bench in the Toronto region. This is the man who acted for bigoted and anti-feminist groups like Focus on the Family and REAL Women when they intervened before the Supreme Court of Canada in an attempt to block equal marriage. We do not need a judiciary following in the footsteps of George Bush and his demented pack of right-wing nutjobs in the United States. We do not need a court system that has been polluted by the appointment of judges on a partisan basis. Canada has had a history of balanced, generally apolitical jurisprudence for many years because our judicial system has not been stacked in favour of any one political party or any particular societal point of view.
The appointment of David Brown is a stunning display of political hubris on the part of Stevie Harper. He has a minority government, and a thin one at that. Where does he think he gets off appointing one of the most socially conservative judges that this country has ever seen? The judiciary is not an appropriate way for the Prime Minister of the day to advance his or her political agenda. Public policy is much more appropriate as a tool, and has a history of being used as such.
Stevie, leave our judiciary alone. It isn't a toy for you to play with, and if you keep playing roughly with it, you will break it. If you break our judicial system, it will take a very long time to fix when you get the boot to your ass that you so richly deserve. When you are out of government, Stevie, people still have to continue on. If you use appointments to the judiciary to try and turn back the clock to the turn of the twentieth century, you destroy everything that this country stands for. Stevie, you've been bad. Go to your room and think about what you've done.
Cheers,
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 860
The appointment of David Brown is a stunning display of political hubris on the part of Stevie Harper. He has a minority government, and a thin one at that. Where does he think he gets off appointing one of the most socially conservative judges that this country has ever seen? The judiciary is not an appropriate way for the Prime Minister of the day to advance his or her political agenda. Public policy is much more appropriate as a tool, and has a history of being used as such.
Stevie, leave our judiciary alone. It isn't a toy for you to play with, and if you keep playing roughly with it, you will break it. If you break our judicial system, it will take a very long time to fix when you get the boot to your ass that you so richly deserve. When you are out of government, Stevie, people still have to continue on. If you use appointments to the judiciary to try and turn back the clock to the turn of the twentieth century, you destroy everything that this country stands for. Stevie, you've been bad. Go to your room and think about what you've done.
Cheers,
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 860
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
One Canadian's Response to Stephen Harper
This was originally written by Wee Mousie at enMasse.ca with the same title, and is reproduced here with permission. If you want to read this in it's original context, you can find it at the following link.
Sending more than 2,000 Canadian troops to Afghanistan has turned Canada's military into a better fighting force and improved Canada's standing on the world stage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
Ah, so that is it. Stevie, you wanted to make the “Who’s Who at the Abattoir.”
. . . 36 soldiers paying the "ultimate sacrifice," but he said it is time for Canada to shoulder its share of the burden of fighting for peace and stability in the world.
Fighting For Peace and War On Terror are almost as good as War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, or Ignorance Is Strength.
"If I can be frank about this, you know, in some ways I think we can complain that only a handful of countries are carrying the bulk of the load and the bulk of the danger there," Harper said.
Or, to put another way, so far, not many countries have leaders moronic enough to support another country’s effort at world domination.
"But, you know, the shoe was often on the other foot. For a lot of the last 30 or 40 years, we were the ones hanging back." Stephen Harper
Yes, Stevie, but only from aggression in which Canadians did not wish to participate.
Depends how you define “better,” Stevie. You’re exposing the same bloody-mindedness as your hero, the Torturer-In-Chief.
Harper said it has been years since Canadian troops have been involved in the kind of sustained fighting that they have encountered in Afghanistan and the commitment made by Canada to root out the Taliban to create a more stable Afghanistan has enhanced the image of Canada abroad.
Soldiers, killing civilians can only enhances a country's image to jackals, Stevie.
"It's certainly raising Canada's leadership role, once again, in the United Nations and in the world community where we used to have an important leadership role," he said.
Yes, we used to have an important leadership role as non belligerents, but a new image is rising, thank to this latest ill-advised adventure, Stevie.
Thirty-six Canadians soldiers and one Canadian diplomat have died in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops there.
But Harper said Canada is making progress in Afghanistan. The mission will be considered a success, he said, when changes to the country in terms of peace and security are irreversible.
So you say, but then, we have heard similar claims prove erroneous before, while the only things that are truly irreversible are the deaths of thirty-six Canadian soldiers and one Canadian diplomat who have died in Afghanistan.
Canada may have underestimated the strength of the insurgency when it committed troops to the mission, Harper said, but the Taliban continues to be on the defensive.
Or perhaps the number was politically deflated (like your friends in the US underestimated the troop requirements in Iraq) which explains why Canadian forces are experiencing loses at four times the rate that US forces are in Iraq, and the outlook for the future -- even through your rosy glasses -- entails even more deaths in the Canadian military.
"Canada shares its goal of giving the people of Afghanistan, the children, men and women alike, the chance of a better life," Harper said in a Sept. 14 news release announcing Karzai's visit. "A life of peace, security, freedom and justice. A life we as Canadians have for ourselves and that we seek for others."
And Stevie and the American neocons are going to give that to them, even if it takes the life of every civilian in Afghanistan and half the Canadian military.
Sending more than 2,000 Canadian troops to Afghanistan has turned Canada's military into a better fighting force and improved Canada's standing on the world stage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
Ah, so that is it. Stevie, you wanted to make the “Who’s Who at the Abattoir.”
. . . 36 soldiers paying the "ultimate sacrifice," but he said it is time for Canada to shoulder its share of the burden of fighting for peace and stability in the world.
Fighting For Peace and War On Terror are almost as good as War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, or Ignorance Is Strength.
"If I can be frank about this, you know, in some ways I think we can complain that only a handful of countries are carrying the bulk of the load and the bulk of the danger there," Harper said.
Or, to put another way, so far, not many countries have leaders moronic enough to support another country’s effort at world domination.
"But, you know, the shoe was often on the other foot. For a lot of the last 30 or 40 years, we were the ones hanging back." Stephen Harper
Yes, Stevie, but only from aggression in which Canadians did not wish to participate.
"It's certainly engaged our military," Harper said. "It has made it a better military."
Quote: “Canada participated in every UN peacekeeping effort from their beginning until 1989, and has since then continued to play a significant role. More than 125,000 Canadians have served in some 50 UN peacekeeping missions since 1949, with 116 deaths.”
Wikipedia
Depends how you define “better,” Stevie. You’re exposing the same bloody-mindedness as your hero, the Torturer-In-Chief.
Harper said it has been years since Canadian troops have been involved in the kind of sustained fighting that they have encountered in Afghanistan and the commitment made by Canada to root out the Taliban to create a more stable Afghanistan has enhanced the image of Canada abroad.
Soldiers, killing civilians can only enhances a country's image to jackals, Stevie.
"It's certainly raising Canada's leadership role, once again, in the United Nations and in the world community where we used to have an important leadership role," he said.
Yes, we used to have an important leadership role as non belligerents, but a new image is rising, thank to this latest ill-advised adventure, Stevie.
Thirty-six Canadians soldiers and one Canadian diplomat have died in Afghanistan since Canada first sent troops there.
But Harper said Canada is making progress in Afghanistan. The mission will be considered a success, he said, when changes to the country in terms of peace and security are irreversible.
So you say, but then, we have heard similar claims prove erroneous before, while the only things that are truly irreversible are the deaths of thirty-six Canadian soldiers and one Canadian diplomat who have died in Afghanistan.
Canada may have underestimated the strength of the insurgency when it committed troops to the mission, Harper said, but the Taliban continues to be on the defensive.
Or perhaps the number was politically deflated (like your friends in the US underestimated the troop requirements in Iraq) which explains why Canadian forces are experiencing loses at four times the rate that US forces are in Iraq, and the outlook for the future -- even through your rosy glasses -- entails even more deaths in the Canadian military.
"Canada shares its goal of giving the people of Afghanistan, the children, men and women alike, the chance of a better life," Harper said in a Sept. 14 news release announcing Karzai's visit. "A life of peace, security, freedom and justice. A life we as Canadians have for ourselves and that we seek for others."
And Stevie and the American neocons are going to give that to them, even if it takes the life of every civilian in Afghanistan and half the Canadian military.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Leader of Aum Shinri Kyo to be Hanged
Al Jazeera is reporting that Japan's Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence against Shoko Asashara, 51, the former leader of Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect), the cult that carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, which killed twelve people and injured about five thousand.
While what Mr. Asashara and the members of his cult did was abominable, I remain morally opposed to the death penalty. Obviously Mr. Asashara deserves to be punished, but I believe that he would be punished much more by being incarcerated for the remaining years of his life, in all likelihood at least twenty more, with no chance of parole. I do not believe that killing a person for their crimes makes the world any better or any safer. As cliche as it has become, the words of Mahatma Ghandi still ring true: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Together the world must move past a system of justice in which it becomes permissible for the state to take someone's life when that person poses no further threat to the community. If he was incarcerated, Mr. Asashara would cease to be a threat just as much as once he has been executed.
Capital punishment is archaic and outmoded. As human beings we must seek to move forward together and move past capital punishment as a solution to the problems facing our societies. Capital punishment as a deterrent has been shown not to work and is, in fact, a way for society to take the easy way out. If society believes that by taking the life of a person convicted of a serious crime that the crime problem will be dealt with, it is society refusing to face up to the real solutions to crime, namely the eradication of poverty and inequality.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 867
While what Mr. Asashara and the members of his cult did was abominable, I remain morally opposed to the death penalty. Obviously Mr. Asashara deserves to be punished, but I believe that he would be punished much more by being incarcerated for the remaining years of his life, in all likelihood at least twenty more, with no chance of parole. I do not believe that killing a person for their crimes makes the world any better or any safer. As cliche as it has become, the words of Mahatma Ghandi still ring true: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Together the world must move past a system of justice in which it becomes permissible for the state to take someone's life when that person poses no further threat to the community. If he was incarcerated, Mr. Asashara would cease to be a threat just as much as once he has been executed.
Capital punishment is archaic and outmoded. As human beings we must seek to move forward together and move past capital punishment as a solution to the problems facing our societies. Capital punishment as a deterrent has been shown not to work and is, in fact, a way for society to take the easy way out. If society believes that by taking the life of a person convicted of a serious crime that the crime problem will be dealt with, it is society refusing to face up to the real solutions to crime, namely the eradication of poverty and inequality.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 867
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Shooting at Dawson College
Today a man armed with an automatic weapon attacked the students and teachers of Dawson College CEGEP in downtown Montreal today. As of the most recent news, one woman has been killed and many more have been injured. This is a horrible tragedy. No one should have to fear going to school. No one should have to wonder whether a gun-toting maniac is going to attack their school. My deepest sympathies go out to the family of the woman who was killed, to those who were wounded and continue to suffer, and to those students who are too scared and traumatized to ever return to their school. My thoughts go out as well to all the emergency workers who did everything they could to save the lives and ease the suffering of those who had been shot.
When I first heard about this story, the announcer on CTV NewsNet was simply mentioning shooting and Dawson College, but not that Dawson is a CEGEP school. My sister recently began classes at McGill University in Montreal, and for the five minutes before the announcer mentioned that Dawson is a CEGEP school I was having a minor panic attack. I was afraid that Dawson might have turned out to be a residence at McGill that my sister could have been visiting. My reaction to this situation was not improved by the fact that my sister was in London during the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on the transportation system.
We need to make sure that illegal weapons stop making their way into Canada. No one needs an automatic rifle for anything. If the gun hadn't been automatic the number of dead and wounded could well have been much lower. We must pass tougher laws to keep illegal guns out of our country.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 870
When I first heard about this story, the announcer on CTV NewsNet was simply mentioning shooting and Dawson College, but not that Dawson is a CEGEP school. My sister recently began classes at McGill University in Montreal, and for the five minutes before the announcer mentioned that Dawson is a CEGEP school I was having a minor panic attack. I was afraid that Dawson might have turned out to be a residence at McGill that my sister could have been visiting. My reaction to this situation was not improved by the fact that my sister was in London during the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on the transportation system.
We need to make sure that illegal weapons stop making their way into Canada. No one needs an automatic rifle for anything. If the gun hadn't been automatic the number of dead and wounded could well have been much lower. We must pass tougher laws to keep illegal guns out of our country.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 870
Monday, September 11, 2006
Layton Outlines NDP Five Priorities
In his keynote speech at the NDP Convention in Quebec City today, Jack Layton outlined the five priorities for the NDP over the coming months. The priorities are as follows:
I believe that the intent behind the priorities is good, and addresses many areas that need urgent attention, but I believe that they need work. They must be re-written to be more inclusive and more specific. If the NDP can focus on the (rewritten) priorities, then hopefully some good can be accomplished. Having concise statements of principle such as these will also be helpful in the next election, since the Conservative campaign of 2006 proved that simple and direct priority statements can be effective and because the NDP has struggled to be concise in the past. But they must be reworked. If they are not, I can't support the second point, and will have difficulty explaining point four to others.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 873
- Bring Canada's troops home from Afghanistan.
- Provide more affordable housing to working Canadians and help young people buy their first homes.
- Increase access to education and training for young Canadians.
- Take better care of the elderly.
- Protect the environment through tough auto emissions standards and clamping down on the emissions of large-scale industrial polluters.
I believe that the intent behind the priorities is good, and addresses many areas that need urgent attention, but I believe that they need work. They must be re-written to be more inclusive and more specific. If the NDP can focus on the (rewritten) priorities, then hopefully some good can be accomplished. Having concise statements of principle such as these will also be helpful in the next election, since the Conservative campaign of 2006 proved that simple and direct priority statements can be effective and because the NDP has struggled to be concise in the past. But they must be reworked. If they are not, I can't support the second point, and will have difficulty explaining point four to others.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 873
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Canada to Send More Troops to Afghanistan
It has become an open secret that the Canadian government is preparing to send more troops to Afghanistan when what we need to be doing is bringing them home. The government is preparing to deploy twenty leopard tanks, and the crews to operate them to Afghanistan. The deployment of the tanks will send another approximately three hundred personnel to Afghanistan. Such an increase represents an approximately 15% increase in the forces that Canada has deployed.
This is insanity. This is a sure sign that the mission is going further off the rails. Has no one thought through the fact that a major weapon in the arsenal of Taliban forces is the rocket propelled grenade? This weapon was designed to destroy tanks! When these tanks are deployed they will be firing high explosive shells. These shells will kill yet more civilians. We are digging ourselves deeper into this hole and dangerous similarities to the American war in Vietnam are emerging. In Vietnam, General Westmorland kept claiming that if he got a few more troops he could beat the Viet Cong. The same thing seems to be happening in Afghanistan, but with NATO. "If only they could get 2000 more soldiers, then they can defeat the Taliban." This is the top of a very slippery slope. We need to pull ourselves back from the brink, and return to reality. We need to support our troops by bringing them home.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 873
This is insanity. This is a sure sign that the mission is going further off the rails. Has no one thought through the fact that a major weapon in the arsenal of Taliban forces is the rocket propelled grenade? This weapon was designed to destroy tanks! When these tanks are deployed they will be firing high explosive shells. These shells will kill yet more civilians. We are digging ourselves deeper into this hole and dangerous similarities to the American war in Vietnam are emerging. In Vietnam, General Westmorland kept claiming that if he got a few more troops he could beat the Viet Cong. The same thing seems to be happening in Afghanistan, but with NATO. "If only they could get 2000 more soldiers, then they can defeat the Taliban." This is the top of a very slippery slope. We need to pull ourselves back from the brink, and return to reality. We need to support our troops by bringing them home.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 873
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Canadian Soldiers Killed by American Plane
An American pilot and plane killed a Canadian soldier and wounded many others two days ago (September 4th, 2006). Two A-10 Warthog attack planes strafed a group of Canadian soldiers who were about to begin an attack on Taliban positions. Pte. Mark Anthony Graham was killed and as many as thirty others were wounded. How could this happen? The Canadian soldiers were closely grouped around their LAV-3 armoured vehicles, just waking up, when the two aircraft strafed the Canadian positions. The Taliban do not have access to armoured vehicles, so the Canadians could not very easily have been mistaken for the Taliban. There is no good reason that the Americans would have strafed the Canadian position. The Americans need Canadian soldiers and the soldiers of other NATO countries in Afghanistan to free up American soldiers to fight, kill and die in Iraq.
I extend my condolences to the family of Pte. Graham, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the soldiers who were wounded. They do not have control over where the Canadian government sends them. They did not choose to take part in a mission of occupation and counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. They did not ask to be put in a situation where they are killing Afghani civilians.
The attack by the Americans will provide further impetus to the calls to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan, and this is the only upside that it has. We should not be in Afghanistan because it is wrong, and we should not be in Afghanistan because the Americans are killing our soldiers. Of the 32 Canadian soldiers who have died since Canada deployed our soldiers to Afghanistan, five have been killed by the Americans. That is over 15%. If we need any other reason to withdraw than what we are doing to the people of Southern Afghanistan, maybe it is that the Americans are causing 15% of our casualties. We should support our troops by bringing them home now. I urge everyone reading this to go to the NDP web site and show their support for bringing our troops home now by signing this petition.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 877
I extend my condolences to the family of Pte. Graham, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the soldiers who were wounded. They do not have control over where the Canadian government sends them. They did not choose to take part in a mission of occupation and counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. They did not ask to be put in a situation where they are killing Afghani civilians.
The attack by the Americans will provide further impetus to the calls to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan, and this is the only upside that it has. We should not be in Afghanistan because it is wrong, and we should not be in Afghanistan because the Americans are killing our soldiers. Of the 32 Canadian soldiers who have died since Canada deployed our soldiers to Afghanistan, five have been killed by the Americans. That is over 15%. If we need any other reason to withdraw than what we are doing to the people of Southern Afghanistan, maybe it is that the Americans are causing 15% of our casualties. We should support our troops by bringing them home now. I urge everyone reading this to go to the NDP web site and show their support for bringing our troops home now by signing this petition.
Cheers
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 877
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Vancouver Safe-Injection Site Gets a Reprieve, Sort-Of
Tony Clement has said that he will not renew the legal exemption for Insite, Vancouver's safe-injection site for another year. But he will not do anything about them until "additional studies" are completed at the end of 2007. Can you say 'delaying 'till after the next election?'
The Conservatives are allowing ideology to run roughshod over good policy. The safe-injection site has helped thousands of addicts and there has not been a single fatality at Insite. The nurses there have helped over 500 people who overdosed, many of whom would ordinarily have died. According to prestigious medical journals the safe-injection site has had the following benefits:
People addicted to drugs are no less people than you or me. They are equally deserving of life. We must help them overcome their addictions. We must not ostracize them and banish them to dark corners and out of the way places to shoot up with dirty needles. If we say that we will not help them because they are addicted to drugs, then we are saying that they are less than we are. THEY ARE NO LESS. We must do everything in our power to help them. This begins with a safe-injection site and continues by making detoxification and rehabilitation programmes available to those in need. Help continues by having subsidized, affordable, housing available. It continues by realizing that drug addicts are people, just like you and me.
Saying that one group of people is undeserving of society is the then edge of the wedge. We must make sure that the government recognizes this. We have a responsibility to make sure that no one slips through the cracks. No one is undeserving simply by dint of an addiction to a substance, be that substance coffee, nicotine, alcohol or illegal drugs. No one.
All of the information in this post is sourced from Vancouver Coastal Health and can be found here. Vancouver Coastal Health is a publically funded public health organization serving Vancouver and surrounding areas.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 881
The Conservatives are allowing ideology to run roughshod over good policy. The safe-injection site has helped thousands of addicts and there has not been a single fatality at Insite. The nurses there have helped over 500 people who overdosed, many of whom would ordinarily have died. According to prestigious medical journals the safe-injection site has had the following benefits:
- Increased uptake into detoxification programs and addiction treatment. (New England Journal of Medicine)
- Reduced the number of people injecting in public and the amount of injection-related litter in the downtown eastside. (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
- Insite is attracting the highest-risk users – those more likely to be vulnerable to HIV infection and overdose, and who were contributing to problems of public drug use and unsafe syringe disposal. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine)
- Is not increasing rates of relapse among former drug users, nor is it a negative influence on those seeking to stop drug use. (British Medical Journal)
People addicted to drugs are no less people than you or me. They are equally deserving of life. We must help them overcome their addictions. We must not ostracize them and banish them to dark corners and out of the way places to shoot up with dirty needles. If we say that we will not help them because they are addicted to drugs, then we are saying that they are less than we are. THEY ARE NO LESS. We must do everything in our power to help them. This begins with a safe-injection site and continues by making detoxification and rehabilitation programmes available to those in need. Help continues by having subsidized, affordable, housing available. It continues by realizing that drug addicts are people, just like you and me.
Saying that one group of people is undeserving of society is the then edge of the wedge. We must make sure that the government recognizes this. We have a responsibility to make sure that no one slips through the cracks. No one is undeserving simply by dint of an addiction to a substance, be that substance coffee, nicotine, alcohol or illegal drugs. No one.
All of the information in this post is sourced from Vancouver Coastal Health and can be found here. Vancouver Coastal Health is a publically funded public health organization serving Vancouver and surrounding areas.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 881
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Jack Layton Calls for Afghanistan withdrawal
It's about bloody time. We have accomplished squat in Afghanistan beyond the deaths of more Afghanis and Canadians. Gordon O'Connor himself has admitted that Afghanistan is no better off than this time last year. It is well past time to show that we support our troops by bringing them back from fighting a proxy war with the United States. A real peace process is needed. We have to realize that the Taliban cannot be squashed by military means. The have the support of much of the population in southern Afghanistan, and they must be engaged in a dialogue. This does not mean that we must force Afghanistan to return to being governed by the Taliban. It means that we must see that the Taliban are the legitimate political choice of many in the South. They ought to be given the opportunity to engage in the political process. And Canadian troops must be brought home. Our presence is a provocation of the Afghan people and we have no right to be there.
Furthermore, Canada should be making reparations for every building destroyed by Canadian fire power. We should be compensating the families of every Afghan the Canadian Forces have killed. We should show our soldiers support by bringing them home to a place where they died for no reason. If our soldiers must die, it must be in the service of a defensible goal, for example defending the people of Darfur from rape and murder. Not fighting a war for the Americans. If the Americans are so intent on seeing Afghanistan conquered and pacified, let them try to do it themselves. We stepped into the breach, to allow American troops to be diverted to Iraq. Shame on our government. Canadian troops must be withdrawn now. They should not die for nothing. We should not be killing Afghanis for nothing.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 882
Furthermore, Canada should be making reparations for every building destroyed by Canadian fire power. We should be compensating the families of every Afghan the Canadian Forces have killed. We should show our soldiers support by bringing them home to a place where they died for no reason. If our soldiers must die, it must be in the service of a defensible goal, for example defending the people of Darfur from rape and murder. Not fighting a war for the Americans. If the Americans are so intent on seeing Afghanistan conquered and pacified, let them try to do it themselves. We stepped into the breach, to allow American troops to be diverted to Iraq. Shame on our government. Canadian troops must be withdrawn now. They should not die for nothing. We should not be killing Afghanis for nothing.
Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 882
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