Googling the history of our Afghanistan adventure the other day, I encountered a snide Vancouver Sun article written in 2008 mocking “Taliban Jack” for his position on the war, sarcastically summarizing his views as, “Bring in the UN, facilitate disc…
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Politics, Re-Spun: The Social Determinants of Health
(Note: This post contains a portion of the talk that I gave last month at the 16th International Conference of the Association of Psychology and Psychiatry for Adults and Children in Athens). Research has now clearly established that economic, and social variables – more than individual or family behavior – are the most salient factors […]
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: Afghantistan is no longer a risk: PM
Inspired by this story:http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/05/30/pol-harper-afghanistan.html
Continue readingcmkl: Afghanistan is no longer a threat to the world. As if it ever was
“Afghanistan is no longer a threat to the world.” These are Stephen Harper’s words to our troops in Afghanistan as he tries to explain why 156 of their comrades (and we may never know how many Afghans) are dead. I suppose it’s pretty normal to ex…
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Think of Them As "Terrorists In Training"
Another screwed up NATO airstrike in Afghanistan. 14-dead, reportedly all women and children. Six others wounded. The Talibs are busy signing up new recruits.Karzai’s beating his chest. Says this is his “last warning…
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: Tory Impressed U.S. DiplomAnts: WikiLeaks
Inspired by this story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/05/18/baird-wikileaks-minister-environment.html
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2011-05-10 00:37:00
AMERICAN POLITICS:ANOTHER SORT OF FIRST OF JULY:Well now that the great raison d’être for America’s far flung wars is safely swimming with the fishies it might just be time for that country to question why they continue to fight. A peace coalition cal…
Continue readingMind of Dan: Osama may be dead, but we still have to stay in Afghanistan
I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure. -Mark Twain Osama Bin Laden is dead. Killed, it appears, by the CIA. The question is what do we do next? Many are saying it is time for us to get out of Afghanistan, but most people saying that were […]
Continue readingthwap makes a good point
Again. But he tends to doing it.There have been serious war crimes allegations made during the Afghanistan war, which demand investigation, and if necessary, prosecution.Appointing an investigator with subpoena power is one of the very first acts Prime…
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: World strikes back against Libya
I’ve often felt that military intervention is warranted when there are gross human rights violations, but often it has not happened where it was most needed or when it was too late — think Rwanda and Bosnia for instance. But now the rubber has hi…
Continue readingAfghanistan and the myth of ‘national insecurity’
“If pressure is ever going to develop to get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, progressives will have to offer a new option that actually speaks to Americans.” – To myth or not to myth
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Afghanistan: War, Power and Illusion
Canadian LAVs, Afghanistan, by isafmedia This week, Project Censored has released its annual list of top 25 censored news stories in a volume entitled Censored 2011: The Top Censored Stories of 2009-2010. An astounding article published by The Nation on November 11, 2009; How the US funds the Taliban, resurfaces
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Drones, Torture, Rendition: Democratic Values?
A Huffington Post column by Johann Hari summarizes certain revelations stemming from the leaked USG diplomatic cables by Wikileaks. The piece posits that Julian Assange’s efforts have made the world safer and are a boon to US National Security, that a better educated public with proof of government wrongdoings can
Continue readingWorld Headlines Review: Wikileaks: Misanthropy and the Spectre of Scrutiny
Amid the bluster surrounding the public release of 278 of 251,287 secret and confidential USG diplomatic cables by Wikileaks as of Monday November 29th; more telling as to the behaviour and thinking of governments and vested interests is the current reaction in the world media and of public officials, than
Continue readingA. Picazo: Child Soldiers: The Other Taliban and Al-Qaeda Militants
“A poignant reality of contemporary conflicts is that increasingly children are being used as cheap and readily available weapons of war. From Colombia to Sri Lanka, from Sierra Leone to Uganda, thousands of children have been used in armed conflict situations. In Afghanistan, our forces are seeing the increasing use
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: TVO’s The Agenda: Truth, Casualties, and War – Akaash Maharaj Videocast
Videocast of my televised essay for TVOntario’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, on Canada’s role in Afghanistan: Our ability to successfully conclude the mission and effect an honourable departure is being prejudiced by an ignominious political retreat from the truth: the truth about why we went to Afghanistan in the
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: TVO’s The Agenda: Truth, Casualties, and War – Akaash Maharaj Videocast
Videocast of my televised essay for TVOntario’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, on Canada’s role in Afghanistan: Our ability to successfully conclude the mission and effect an honourable departure is being prejudiced by an ignominious political retreat from the truth: the truth about why we went to Afghanistan in the
Continue readingDear Afghanistan, we’re not going anywhere yet!
The Conservative Government has finally unveiled the plan for our troops in Afghanistan, and surprise, surprise… we aren’t going anywhere.
Canadian troops will no longer be used in active combat roles after 2011, rather the 950 troops will take on a…
Continue readingFive of Five: Shortest Post Ever
I don’t believe a single thing Stephen Harper says about Afghanistan.
Continue readingDTK: Cannon fodder
Quite an uproar over the “cannon fodder” video.
It involves a fictional mother of a Canadian soldier lamenting that she might not have had children if she had known that they would be used as cannon fodder.
Lots of anger over that, including one nonfictional mother of a slain soldier who said, “Because they died in combat, [these women] have the nerve to describe them as cannon fodder.”
Nerve?
Yes, I suppose it takes nerve to break the veneer of patriotism that tells people that their children died a great and wonderful cause when in reality they’re dying for no particularly good reason.
But if it’s true that the war is pointless and wrong, and no one says anything, more children are going to die.
Seriously. If you want to convince the rest of us that you’re right. If you want to convince us that the war in Afghanistan is worthwhile and winnable, then show us how you’re going to win. Show us how you’re already winning. Show us what you could possible hope to accomplish.
I see a lot of nothing. I see the schools we built being used for storing and shipping marijuana. I see our money ending up in villas in Dubai. I see the government we set up mistreating its women as badly as their enemies did.
That’s not worth dying for.
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