POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY PAUL KORING IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL
We went into Afghanistan for one reason only.
The exact quote is: we owe one to the Pentagon.
Those words were said considering Canada's previous principled refusal to enter the insane slaughter in Iraq and to participate in one of America's projects for the militarization of space.
The Liberals, in agreeing, thought Canadians would not be in front-line duty and serve only as the kind of behind-the-front (fairly token) support true so many other NATO nations hoping to placate America.
Also since America had managed to get a UN resolution - as it mostly does in such matters through quiet browbeating, threats to aid, cajoling, and even pay-back threats - Canada took it as a sign of international recognition of legitimacy.
But Afghanistan never had real legitimacy.
Just look at all the NATO contributions. In view of the size of the country and of the exaggerated American claims of its vital nature and world-importance, all the contributions are token, ranging in size from a few hundred to a few thousand.
Does anyone not believe that had NATO countries believed the American nonsense about the vital nature of the mission that the contributions would have been in the tens of thousands?
The entire matter has been a vast charade, a charade basically covering America's naked desire for extreme revenge in Afghanistan.
The Taleban never attacked anyone, and to this day we haven't one ounce of proof bin Laden had anything to do with it, other than to enjoy the spectacle of an enemy being hurt.
Nasty as the Taleban were, they were no worse than the ugly members of the Northern Alliance, the people America used - behind a front of carpet-bombing - to actually fight the Taleban and the people some of whose members rule until this day.
All the stuff about rights was the lowest form of propaganda.
After all, the Russians during their invasion and occupation did many things in keeping with improving Afghanistan's modernity, and what was the American response? To send billions in armaments to the people fighting the Russians.
We have no better modern example of a pointless war presented as something which it was not.
Even Vietnam, that modern holocaust in which the United States killed perhaps 3 million people and left behind a hideous mess of mine and Agent Orange and craters from carpet-bombing, never had such phony propaganda about its purpose.
A fool's mission all around I am sorry to say, but the ugly truth may better prepare Canadians against such lunatic American projects in future.
We went into Afghanistan for one reason only.
The exact quote is: we owe one to the Pentagon.
Those words were said considering Canada's previous principled refusal to enter the insane slaughter in Iraq and to participate in one of America's projects for the militarization of space.
The Liberals, in agreeing, thought Canadians would not be in front-line duty and serve only as the kind of behind-the-front (fairly token) support true so many other NATO nations hoping to placate America.
Also since America had managed to get a UN resolution - as it mostly does in such matters through quiet browbeating, threats to aid, cajoling, and even pay-back threats - Canada took it as a sign of international recognition of legitimacy.
But Afghanistan never had real legitimacy.
Just look at all the NATO contributions. In view of the size of the country and of the exaggerated American claims of its vital nature and world-importance, all the contributions are token, ranging in size from a few hundred to a few thousand.
Does anyone not believe that had NATO countries believed the American nonsense about the vital nature of the mission that the contributions would have been in the tens of thousands?
The entire matter has been a vast charade, a charade basically covering America's naked desire for extreme revenge in Afghanistan.
The Taleban never attacked anyone, and to this day we haven't one ounce of proof bin Laden had anything to do with it, other than to enjoy the spectacle of an enemy being hurt.
Nasty as the Taleban were, they were no worse than the ugly members of the Northern Alliance, the people America used - behind a front of carpet-bombing - to actually fight the Taleban and the people some of whose members rule until this day.
All the stuff about rights was the lowest form of propaganda.
After all, the Russians during their invasion and occupation did many things in keeping with improving Afghanistan's modernity, and what was the American response? To send billions in armaments to the people fighting the Russians.
We have no better modern example of a pointless war presented as something which it was not.
Even Vietnam, that modern holocaust in which the United States killed perhaps 3 million people and left behind a hideous mess of mine and Agent Orange and craters from carpet-bombing, never had such phony propaganda about its purpose.
A fool's mission all around I am sorry to say, but the ugly truth may better prepare Canadians against such lunatic American projects in future.
