That's the title of a column by Margaret Wente in today's Globe and Mail. This is not the first time I've commended a piece by Ms. Wente to you, dear readers. She is a rare voice of sanity amongst the right-thinking and politically correct denizens of the Globe's op-ed pages.
Let me give you just the beginning and end of her opinion on the wisdom of keeping Canadian troops in Afghanistan on the "training mission" announced on Remembrance Day by President Harper. [President??!! Ed.]
What explains Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s sudden change of heart on Afghanistan? One day he’s vowing to shut the door and turn out the lights on the Canadian mission by next July, the next he’s channelling Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. Now he tells us that 950 Canadian soldiers will stay on as trainers, “to honour the sacrifice we’ve made and consolidate those gains.”
Sweet. But that’s not why we’re staying on. We’re staying on because U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and our friends at NATO put the arm on him, and when those folks get that insistent, it’s awfully hard to refuse.
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I sympathize with people who say it would be “shameful” for us to cut and run now. But I also think someone should explain how any of our training efforts could possibly make a difference. Ultimately, the success of the Afghan forces depends on the support of the Afghan people.
And that brings us to the worst problem of all – the deeply corrupt and deeply reviled Karzai government itself. The way a lot of Afghans see it, we’ll simply be helping to prop up another bad regime. And they won’t be wrong.
Worth noting is Ms. Wente's take on the real reason for the Harper flip-flop. Harper caved. End of story.
I wonder if Harper would feel more loyal to an invading foreign army than to his own countryfolk. I guess if they paid him a lot of money, he might. But the Afghan people aren't as materialistic.
ReplyDeleteWhile many are illiterate, they have a strong oral tradition and can tell you of many invading armies that Afghanistan has defeated in the past couple of thousand years.
They are a simple, but highly disciplined people. But they submit themselves to Allah, not to some foreign white guy with a title and an attitude. They are difficult to corrupt and impossible to defeat--precisely because they are intelligent, loyal, disciplined, and excellent fighters. We westerners who respect only money and titles, treat them with disrespect, so that's what we get in return.