Eric Margolis And John Manley On Afghanistan

Meanwhile, the Manley Report [.pdf] falls predictably like a dead hand on the tiller of Canadian foreign policy in Afghanistan: we're heading for the rocks, but we should be more frank about the impending shipwreck. The Manley Report begins with a falsehood ("Afghanistan is at war") and goes downhill from there. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is not at war, and it has declared war on no other state. How can Manley, a lawyer, not get this? Either he chooses not to get it or he's an idiot. His shtick might play well in the corridors of power in North America, but it's going nowhere in the back blocks of Kandahar. Afghanistan may well be experiencing a civil war, in which case Canada is aiding the "civil power," but what if the civil power is completely corrupt? SNIP So let's imagine it the other way around. The Gigantic Islamic Republic of Asia (population one billion) decides that Canada is a failed state. The government of Canada is replaced by Shariah law, and 2,500 Afghan troops are dispatched from Washington (by Hamid Karzai, the mayor of Washington) to oversee the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Sudbury. You can see how this would work. None of the Afghans speak English, so some local "terps" are hired to deal with the natives. The whole of the Afghan detachment would fit comfortably into the Sudbury Arena for a hockey game. Do these guys play hockey? Various forward operational bases are established at North Bay and Sault St. Marie, but casualties are incurred during routine transport, and only helicopters are deemed safe. German tanks worth one billion euros are parked in Sudbury and forgotten. Unrest begins at home, but people are told "we might be in North America for 100 years," and "Muslims don't cut and run." http://www.antiwar.com/orig/kitson.php?articleid=12379

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