A very strange Oped piece appeared in the Globe and Mail on the weekend, written by none other than Stephen Harper. It was a follow up to a government announcement that we would be giving the Ukrainian military another 220 million dollars, on top of the 300 million already provided,
Continue readingTag: afghanistan
Alberta Diary: On the centenary of Gavrilo Princip’s fateful shot in Sarajevo, let’s learn the right lessons from history
Gavrilo Princip under arrest. Below: Princip and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Today is the centenary of the day Gavrilo Princip took his little Belgian pistol to Sarajevo and blew the heir presumptive to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire into history. As is well known, not long after young Princip
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Hashtag hypocrisy: #on the other hand my husband orders drone strikes that have killed hundreds of kids
The kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls by Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad, also known by the Hausa name Boko Haram, happened over a month ago. By now a percentage of these girls are likely dispersed… transported across the porous Nigerian border into Chad, Cameroon and Niger where Boko Haram leader
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Day of Disappointment
Well today is the National Day of Honour. The day Stephen Harper proclaimed should honour all those who served in Afghanistan.But as I explained the other night, is an unseemly debacle mainly intended to honour HIMSELF.Even if that means elbowing the Governor General out of the way, and posing as
Continue readingWise Law Blog: 140 Law – Legal Headlines for Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Wednesday, March 26, 2014: Egyptian lawyers boycott new mass trial of almost 700 suspected Islamists – Toronto Star Ontario Superior a Court action: BlackBerry sues exec to stay for six months after being poached by Apple Ruling: Kansas
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Con Day of Infamy
It couldn't have been a more welcome sight. The last Canadian soldiers returning from Afghanistan. If I had been watching them coming in to land, I would have been waving my arms in the air, and shouting "Glory Hallelujah, we are free at last." And this couldn't have been a happier sight. There
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Predictable
In the department of “no big surprise here”, we have The Taliban mocking the departure of Canadian troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban’s information arm issued a statement Thursday to followers in Kandahar congratulating its fighters in the rural districts of Panjwaii, Zharey, Dand, Maiwand and Shah Wali Kot claiming that
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How the Conservative Government Dishonours the Military
So Canada is leaving its occupation of Afghanistan. I never liked the mission. I never liked the context. I never liked the propaganda. I never liked the transformation of some kind of Canada into this occupying Canada. 162 killed and 2,179 wounded? But here’s the very very hard question. Who
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: March 12, 2014 was the day that the Canadian government…
March 12, 2014 was the day that the Canadian government officially ended its 12-year occupation of Afghanistan. What a pointless waste of lives, money and resources for a so-called “mission” that was never clearly defined and kept changing whenever the previous excuses stopped fooling the public. Hopefully the Canadian military
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Brits Throw In the Towel in Helmand
Like Canada, Britain maintained a military contingent in Afghanistan for more than a decade. Like Canada, the Brits set lofty goals of their Afghan War. Like Canada, the Brits are leaving Afghanistan with precious little to show for their sacrifice in lives and treasure. Like Canada in Kandahr, the Brits used
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Obama, Time to Wash Your Hands of Afghanistan
If the United States cannot come up with one scenario in which it would return American troops to Afghanistan in large numbers, it should fold its tent and leave by the end of the year. Put another way, what does the U.S. think it can achieve in Afghanistan with a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Advice to Canadian politicians and media: Proceed with caution on your support for Ukraine’s rebels
Anti-Government Ukrainians prepare to fight police in Kiev. Below: Rioters throw gasoline bombs at police in Ukraine; Alberta Labour Minister Thomas Lukaszuk. (Wikimedia photos.) You can bet money that when trouble is brewing abroad things are always far more complicated than local enthusiasts for one side or the other make
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Cancelled: Alison Redford’s expensive Afghanistan photo-op
TweetAlbertans discovered this week that Premier Alison Redford cancelled a secretly planned trip to war-torn Afghanistan after suicide bomber blew herself up in a Kabul restaurant , killing twenty-one people, including two Canadians. Ms. Redford was leading a trade mission through India last week and had secretly planned to stop
Continue readingAfghanistan—the mother of all unpopular wars
There are unpopular wars, and then there are really, really unpopular wars. The Afghan war falls overwhelmingly into the latter category. According to a CNN/ORC International survey released this week, 90 per cent of Americans supported the war in early 2002, now 82 per cent oppose it. This dramatic change
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Afghanistan Returns to the Stone Age
If there’s still anyone willing to claim that what we did in Afghanistan was worth even one Canadian life, mention this. Afghanistan is on the brink of reinstating public death by stoning for the offence of adultery. The proposal is tucked into a draft revision of the country’s penal
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is Omar Khadr a pawn in a cynical political game by the Harper Government?
The scene a week ago in the chapel at the King’s University College in Edmonton during a forum on the fate of Omar Khadr. Below: Canadian lawyer Dennis Edney, U.S. Defense Department lawyer Samuel Morison. Is the continued imprisonment of Omar Khadr actually a question of principle for the Harper
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Waltzing Matilda-Lest We Forget
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger It seems that we see and hear music and films of the first and second world wars such as this moving testimony. Not so much anymore. Prime Minister Harper has disregarded the Afghanistan Veterans having cut the meagre benefits that were in place. It is a national
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: NATO’s Afghan Mission Reduced to Bean-Counting
NATO is going to keep thousands of personnel in Afghanistan post-2014 but the only fighting they’ll do will be to try to keep their Afghan counterparts from pilfering the ongoing 4 billion dollars a year in military aid. Basically we’re going to defend our money against our allies. Sounds like
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