POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY ANEEL BRAR IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
"The answer provided was simple: NATO members are there to contain terrorism and build a stable country."
Rubbish.
Since when do armed forces "build" stable countries?
It has never happened.
Contain terrorism?
I've yet to hear of any terrorism coming from Afghanistan.
And most young Afghans won't even be aware of Canada's existence despite our billions spent.
Our soldiers just look like Americans, even wearing pretty much the same gear, and in Afghan eyes, we are all foreigners who don't belong there.
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From a reader we have, "fascist taliban"
That's uninformed nonsense.
The Taleban was formed in the wake of Russia's leaving a mess, a mess made worse by the CIA's secret war of subsidized terror against Russia which left weapons and money in the hands of some truly terrible people.
There was daily killing in the streets all over Afghanistan as the rivals in the Northern Alliance warlords - the guys we call allies - fought each other like street gangs. They also used to extort money on every road so people couldn't even conduct normal business.
The Taleban was originally a grassroots organization to put an end to that mess, and they very much did so. They also put an end to the drug trade, something flourishing again under the American occupation.
They are not advanced, humanitarian people, but then neither are half our allies in Afghanistan, folks like mass-murderer, General Dostum.
As far as human rights go, amazingly little has changed. Women in most of Afghanistan outside Kabul wear the burka.
This comment is a good example of so much that is printed and broadcast about Afghanistan: it simply uses clichés, clichés that aren't even Afghan but American.
"Girls who don't have to worry about having acid thrown on their face by the taliban."
Yes, and won't it be a bright day when the children of Gaza get a balanced diet and the things they need for a full life?
And when they don't have to cower in terror from Israeli jets overhead?
Or fear being used as human shields?
And on that bright day, it will be lovely that the children of East Jerusalem don't have to worry about their families being thrown out of their homes by settlers who use tricks and excuses to steal the homes of families who have lived there for centuries.
