Jim Reed
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CREEPS
Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor has been pussy-footing around a flawed agreement with the "government" of Afghanistan. 
The agreement, which was signed by Canada’s military chief, General Hillier allows Afghan citizens arrested by Canada, to be incarcerated with no Canadian oversight whatsoever. This isn’t surprising, since Hillier referred to these people as "scumbags" and more than likely believes that anyone who gets arrested has no rights anyway.
O’Connor says that he honestly believes that the Afghans will soon get to "our high standards" of civil rights.And no- apparently he was not joking about that.
The fact that Canada’s NATO partners Britian and Holland insist on their right to monitor the detention conditions of the Afghan citizens arrested by Canadians…and that the agreement was approved by Hillier alone…shows just how far out of control this mission has gotten.
Liberal leader Dion is calling for a review of the mission, something that this writer has called for repeatedly since before the "debate" on the renewal of Canada’s involvement in this NATO debacle.
The problem lies in the fact that neither the Liberal or Conservative governments, nor General Hillier nor his NATO military colleagues ever fully accepted or adhered to the original terms of reference for this "mission". It was the military leadership of NATO that got us off-track and obscured the original intent of the mission as expressed by NATO’s political leadership and by the United Nations.
The name for this mission was designated as "The International Security Assistance Force". The name clearly spells out the intended nature of the mission itself, as it was originally framed.
It was intended to ASSIST the Afghan government that was put in place by the Americans and their allies under the leadership of former oil executive Hamid Karzai.
It was intended to HELP that "government" and its military and police arms. It was NOT intended to perform a full-fledged combat role IN BEHALF of that government.
By 2005, a combination of ignorant political leaders, both past and present…and presumptuous military leaders including our own…had caused the mission to deviate from one of ASSISTANCE to one of COMBAT. That process went either unnoticed, or was deliberately ignored during the exceedingly brief "debate" on mission-extension by the current parliament.
Dion is correct in calling for a review- and in that respect he is in accord with several officials in the
present government, although the political leadership seems reluctant to allow those opinions to see the light of day.
Responses to “CREEPS”
March 14th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Actually, sherry, I think Iggy’s silence is one of personal embarrassment. I’d like to spread the rumour that Iggy spends an hour every evening with one of those little leather-thonged whips and self-flagellates until the pain becomes too great for him to bear and then he has Dion rub salt into the wounds.
March 14th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
May I recommend http://www.nytimes.com/ontheground
today’s essay by Nicholas Kristof denouncing military interventions, this time in Darfur although his research shows substantial support for it.
He has some Reed-esque proposals for Blair/Bush to redeem themselves by chairing European summit on Darfur with China at the table.
My suggestion is they have Romeo Dallaire preside. Unlike these Canadian soldier-chumps and their political patrons, he knows firsthand what it’s like to be up to your knees in blood….
Relevance to your blog: Darfur is the next and much worse nightmare yet these clowns are still trying to look like Rambo in Afghanistan.
ps….
“little leather -thonged whips and self-flagellation”, you say, hmm.
Keep up that kind of talk and Reed writes will be getting a lot more hits….
March 15th, 2007 at 9:27 am
There’s an age-old truth about journalism and journalists, Lord A. And that is…ink-stained scribes have lots of time to meditate on the world and propose better ways of dealing with thorny issues like genocide.
On the other hand, national leaders have so much to do there’s no place on their schedule for genocide.
By the time they finish dealing with the economy to satisfy their greedy citzenry, pork-barrelling their constituencies around the country, and making sure their military-industrial complex is hale and hearty…genocide seems like a small matter.
Obviously you could never boycott China, since so many Walmart workers are employed there.
I like your idea of Romeo d’Allaire.
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p.s. I’d appreciate you spreading the rumour about Iggy’s secret life.
March 15th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I also agree with you both on the Romeo thing, but what I really want to know is where do you get those little leather whips?
March 14th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Yes, Jim it is out of control and a complete lie why we are still there. One day I googled Karzai’s job with Unicol and got a real creepy feeling. How absolutely transparent the U.S.is in their quest for globalization. What upsets me the most is they count on the apathy of millions and millions while the abhorant bulldoze through it all, not caring who gets in the way. Can you just imagine the digs Haliburton will make for itself in Dubai where they will be totally above the law, even more than they are now. Like yourself I have not forgiven Hillier for representing my country with the “murderous scumbags” remarks. He comes across to me as a biggot and a racist, and do you think he’s done any reading on why the ME is angry with “The Great Satan”? They have lots of reasons. I hope Dion pushes for a review on this situation or Canada will keep going down the wrong road. Havn’t heard much from “Iggy” on the matter, but do you think that’s because he supports the occupation of both Iraq and Afghanistan? I beleive Hillier to be loyal more to America’s foreign policy rather than Canada’s. As Lord Anthony would say…..the nightmare continues.