Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
so your all for negotiating and giving legitamacy to the Taliban, a group that denies basic rights to its people, segragates woman from society and denies them education, and the right to work. Executes people in number in a soccer stadium. Murders people that don't conform to thier twisted version of thier religion, destroys symbols of other religion.
Your all for going back on promises to assist a struggling nation, thats facing a internal enemy that thinks nothing of random bombings, and the use of suicide drivers who think that driving into a crowded market and killing scores of innocents is a path to paridise?
Is there an exit strategy in place? Thats up to the nations involved in this mission to decide, all we know at the moment is that there has been an extention to the Canadian mission in there, and if we can't or won't live up to our obligations, then we might as well withdrawl from all international policy because our word as Canadian's means nothing.
The day and age of peacekeeping by meek methods is over, peacekeeping has to be done by both a position of strength, and by being able to kill those like the Taliban in numbers to reduce thier ability to threaten and murder. The concept of soft diplomacy that Paul Martin talked about dosen't work, it emboldens.
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Sitting down for talks with the Taliban does not legitimize them, it recognizes them as a key player within the conflict - and if you do not consider them a player in this conflict, you do not have a clue what is going on there. You yourself say it is up to the NATIONS involved in this mission to decide, and without pulling an elitist definition argument to sound like a jerk, you would know that "nation" does not refer to states, but a collective group of people - such as the taliban.
Originally, we were supposed to be pulled out by February 2007, that part is correct, but since Harper stepped up our presence and extended the mission the only recognizable result so far has been the skyrocketing number of Canadian casualties. Yes, theoretically progress has been made in Afghanistan, schools being built, elections, etc. but the insurgents are organizing themselves better and better everyday. Killing teachers who teach females, killing the police officers for the new government (and their families) - this occupation is not stiffling the terrorist cells, it's only adding fuel to the fire and giving the taliban more targets to hit. The insurgents now have targets to hit, the people who align themselves with the new government.
You can't say that diplomacy will not work in this situation because it hasn't been attempted. The only thing that has been attempted in Afghanistan is to occupy an Islamic state, enforce western values, kill anyone who does not fall in line by military means only. Although I can not say that diplomacy will definately work, it could not hurt.
I've always wondering how people could advocate peace by using military force or as you delicately put it "kill those like the Taliban in numbers". Why do you think these countries hate the western world so much? Because we buy their oil? Because we're white? Or maybe it's because we kill them, enforce our culture on them and undermind their religion?
To say that if we pull out would have repercussions within the international community is a little bit of an exaggeration. Canada pulled out of Kyoto after being a key player in ratifying it, during the year when Canada held the position of president for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Funny, that seems to not have any international repercussions at all, right? States change their foreign policy all the time, Harper changed it to extend the mission, therefor losing cred for Canada's word, but you don't see that.
There is no exit strategy in Afghanistan, we are involved in a conflict that has absolutely no agenda, meanwhile Canadians are dying. If you think that all the insurgents can just be executed, you fail to see how volatile the entire region is. It isn't just Afghanistan, just like Palestine isn't just Palestinians, these people aren't just going to disappear and if you want to get rid of all of them, it's going to take a long, long time.