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.

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

"It's certainly engaged our military," Harper said. "It has made it a better military."

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.