[vanisleflamesfan]

Originally Posted by WessThompson

and so many folks (including many on this forum) wonder what the hell we are doing in Afghanistan...

Yes, there are many people who are questioning what we are doing in Afghanistan, and with good reason.

Initially, Chretien told Canadians that we would join the US led war in a support and peacekeeping role; something that is generally consistent with Canadian foreign policy up to that point.

The problem with this was that the American ‘war’ was not legal or sanctioned in either international or American law. The UN Security Council had declined to give Bush legal recourse to pursue his war on two occasions, saying that the September 11 attacks had been “terrorist attacks” and not the attacks of one State on another State.

Additionally, the United States Congress has never given Bush a formal, legal declaration of war in Afghanistan, instead granting him only a limited “War Powers Resolution” (which he has exceeded anyway).

So the problem with Canada going into Afghanistan in the first place was that they were joining an illegal “war of aggression”. In short, Canadian soldiers were part of an invasion.

Then Martin expanded Canada’s role in an illegal war from support and peacekeeping to combat as the United States wished to withdraw troops in order to invade Iraq.

Harper has continued to expand this role with 2 justifications:
1. 9-11 was an attack on Canada and we just fight global terrorism in order to protect our domestic interests.
2. We must fight the Taliban in order to bring democracy to the Afghan people (this is the justification that seems to be raised by this thread).

This justification is rife with problems and is not as self-evident as you have implied in your post.

First, the previous government in Afghanistan was ousted in the US led war of aggression and replaced by an American-supported, and American-friendly ‘puppet government’. This government is led by a man with former ties to the Taliban and to US oil concerns.

This puppet government is made up of many of the legislators from the former government. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have estimated that 60% of the legislators in this government have ties to the former Taliban. They further estimate that 20 legislators control private militias used against Afghan citizens and to support their illegal activities in the drug trade.

The US and Canadian forces are primarily engaged in supporting this government and in fighting against those that oppose it. This is what we are doing in Afghanistan, supporting a government that does not support its own citizens and is not working for the betterment of its own country.

The UN Human development index STILL rates Afghanistan 175th out of 177 countries. This is a country where the life expectancy is still 45 years. A country where there is 40% unemployment, a country where 700 children die every day from a lack of adequate health care. So if conditions have not changed under the government and are not showing any signs of changing, why are we still involved in risking the lives of Canadian soldiers to fight an illegal war?

So please tell me, what are we doing in Afghanistan?