You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Afghanistan’ tag.
Approaching contentious topics in conversation is always a touchy proposition considering my stance on most issues. The War in Afghanistan, Prison Policy, Educational Policy and Patriarchy are all minefields that are necessarily carefully navigated through as disagreeing too much with the dominant point of view only leads to consternation and frustration on both sides of the conversation.
Sadly, we end up talking about ‘other’ topics and any sort of give or take is eliminated because of the calcified nature of conservatism in Alberta. Take for instance the Oilsands, a blight in Northern Alberta that is poisoning the environment and the people who live near them. The counter argument, jobs and the economy of course. We are making money and that takes precedence over all. Once the Athabasca river is thoroughly contaminated and the people living near it have moved away or died, things will be fine I imagine.
Similarly in Afghanistan, I’m sure once we kill enough of the Taliban peace and prosperity will firmly take hold and we can make a gracious exit and commend ourselves on a job well done. The alternate picture, perpetual war against a embittered, radicalized population does not to have much traction, although it is a narrative much closer to the reality of the situation in Afghanistan at present. I imagine though that we’ll eventually end up blaming the Afghan people for being too backward, too corrupt and too sectarian for our benevolent efforts (bombing the crap out of everything) and disengage while calling it mendaciously, a victory for our side. Consider the magic woven in Vietnam where America came out of the war eventually demanding reparations from the Vietnamese for their actions… Imperial hubris is wonderful.
Hubris aside, the mentality of some conservatives can be somewhat trying, especially with regards to crime and prisons. The verdict is in, and the evidence points to one clear concept. Punishing people does not ‘fix’ them. More punishment is not the solution. Here is where I get accused of being “soft” on crime. Quite bluntly, dealing with the precursors to crime and criminality – poverty, discrimination, and inequality- is a much more efficient and effective way to deal with crime in a society. I assert with certainty we will still need prisons because necessarily, there exists in any population a percentage of people who simply do not fit in and need to be segregated from the general population. The focus though needs to be on the precursors and getting people the skills they need to become a member of society that does not need to commit crime.
Educational policy dovetails into the discussion of the justice system as it has been noted that in punishment heavy modes of operation, educational policy can act as a feeder system for the criminal justice system. Again, the idea that we can punish (people) children into becoming what we want is deleteriously wrong notion that needs to be dispelled from the schools. The fear of punishment works for many, but not all children. For those who do not have the skills to behave correctly punishing them more only pushes them further away from our goal of nurturing and educating people to become contributing members of our society.
Like the unreality of the punishment point of view the view that Feminism is over and women have achieved equality in our society is a persistent meme that needs to be corrected. The Patriarchy is not dead, our culture is a rape culture and women are still second class citizens at their very best. Is the work of eradicating the massive inequality built into our culture even close to being done, heck no. Not acknowledging that the work needs to be done retards progress significantly, as again, the case must be made, defended and writ large so the proper context can be established and the idea that feminism is not “over” can be vanquished (again).
The theme of this post has been pretty much “waaaa! it sucks having to constatantly contradict the dominant cultural and historical narrative, look how much work it is!!!!”. I realize that, but I write to educate those who wonder why when they talk about certain topics with their progressive friends they all of a sudden get that tired 1000 kilometer stare.
We are going to go pave Afghanistan with the blood and bones of Canadian soldiers; will the nebulous goal of “stability” be sufficient to pacify their families as they grieve? Will the inevitable deaths of innocent Afghanis be justified by bringing stability to the region? Consider the very nature of the war in Afghanistan where there are only a few “front lines” and the enemy has the capacity to strike anywhere at almost anytime. Is this what we bring and justify our presence in Afghanistan for?
“Coalition forces in Afghanistan will go on the offensive this fall, says Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, the commander of Canadian troops overseas.
His comments to reporters in Kandahar on Saturday echoed those made by British Maj.-Gen. Nick Carter, commander of coalition troops in southern Afghanistan, who said up to 32,000 Afghan and coalition soldiers will try to clear 500 to 800 insurgents from around Kandahar city before December.
Lessard described the coalition push as “massive activities.” The attacks will be followed by development projects and efforts to strengthen the local governments.”
We have heard this so many times over the tenure of our stay in Afghanistan. But better to have nebulous strategy to match our nebulous goals, one would suppose.
“He [Lessard] said the Taliban had taken the initiative over the summer and it had been “a tough go” for the coalition. “There was a lot more enemy presence and a lot more activity.”
The coalition consolidated its position, Lessard said. “There was no more expansion. We didn’t have the troops.”
But now the Taliban initiative has been stopped. “That’s good, but that’s not good enough,” he said, so the coalition is taking the offensive.”
And re-win the hearts and minds of the people? Who do you side with if you are an Afghani citizen? The corrupt Kharzi regime backed by imperial powers that will be leaving the country soon or with the Taliban who will be there with certainty (being that it is their country after all)?
“With the 150-plus killed, the hundreds of seriously injured, from our Canadian point of view, that’s our legacy.”
Poignant and prescient words from Lieutenant-General Marc Lessard. I’m usually happy when blog posts write themselves, but in this instance, there is nothing to cheer about.
Moe over at Whatever Works has a great post about Afghanistan and the morass that passes as the status quo.
Our formal fighting presence is over as of 2011, despite the braying of the addled Liberal party of Canada. I’m glad that Harper runs his government like an uncaring majority, at least on this one issue. The radicalization of dissent in Canada has taken yet another turn as police have arrested a fourth suspect in the Ottawa bomb plot.
“But a police source told CBC News the individual arrested, who was identified as a man, is not likely to be charged. The source told CBC News there does not appear to be enough evidence for a charge and police are unlikely to hold the individual under anti-terrorism legislation.”
It sounds like the forth individual might have only been lightly colluding with the three other suspects in custody. The other three men have been formally charged:
“Authorities have arrested and charged three Ontario men in what the RCMP is calling a conspiracy to commit “a violent terrorism attack.” Earlier Friday, Khurram Sher, 28, of London, Ont., was remanded in custody until Sept. 1 after a brief court appearance. He was charged Thursday with conspiracy to knowingly facilitate a terrorist activity. Two Ottawa men, Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, and Hiva Alizadeh, 30, were arrested on Wednesday. They appeared in an Ottawa courtroom on Thursday facing the same charge.”
Like the 9/11 bombers, these people are mostly all upper middle class well educated citizens. Educated does not necessarily mean smart though.
“During their investigation, Therriault said, police seized more than 50 electronic circuit boards they say were designed specifically to remotely detonate improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
CBC News has learned that the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team knew about the circuit boards some time ago — for perhaps months or at least many weeks.
The team obtained a warrant to enter Alizadeh’s apartment and surreptitiously removed the boards, replacing them with look-alikes that were duds. Therefore any attack would likely have failed.
Therriault said they also seized a vast quantity of terrorist literature, videos and manuals.”
Full marks for the RCMP and CSIS for actually getting a job done right for once. I’m pretty sure this was because there was no tasering involved with the situation.
“Their profiles are likely to raise concerns about homegrown radicalism, said security expert Eric Margolis, who said the roots of the radicalism are likely triggered by anger over the involvement of Western governments in countries such as Afghanistan.”
Sad, but unsurprising.The damage we wrought in Afghanistan is coming back to bite us. The families we destroyed, intentionally or not, are crying for revenge and retribution by any means necessary. Unfortunately, that usually means when the gun is pointed at us, instead of comfortably at someone else, a terrorist attack. Canada got lucky with these individuals, they were stupid and relied on unencrypted email to plot their actions.
It is a lesson for Canada and the RCMP, but also a lesson for others who will learn from this groups mistakes.
Speaking of how not to win a war, this in from Afghanistan.
“Hundreds of villagers have blocked a highway in eastern Afghanistan to protest a night raid by Nato and Afghan soldiers that left two people dead. A statement from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said two “Taliban insurgents” were killed in the raid in a district near Jalalabad. But villagers said the men were civilians; their protest temporarily closed the highway connecting Jalalabad to Pakistan on Wednesday.”
Two possible insurgents dead, an entire village up in arms protesting to the murder, according to them, of two innocent people. If this is what the people of Afghanistan associate with the US/NATO effort there, then indeed this war, just like Iraq, is lost.
“The protest mirrored a similar demonstration last week, when Nato and Afghan forces raided a house in Wardak province. Neighbours claimed the night raid killed three civilians, and hundreds of them took to the streets to protest the following afternoon.
Afghans have staged a number of similar protests in recent months: Villagers near Jalalabad burned tyres in May after a night raid killed at least nine people, and hundreds protested after Nato troops opened fire on a bus in Kandahar in April.”
The legacy being written, as with every other occupation of Afghanistan, is in the blood of innocents. They will rise once again and push out the occupying armies from their land.
“A United Nations report released last week found that raids by Nato troops killed 41 civilians in the first half of 2010.
Night raids have been a particular point of friction between Nato and Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president. Karzai demanded an end to all night raids in February.”
The puppet Karzai can demand all he wants. His protests fall on mostly deaf ears, after all it is only his country and people that are being destroyed.
Something you will not see on North American television.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXBtrX2osAs
See the entire interview here.
The latest in the Afghan war of futility. The US is sending drones to dispatch no-goodniks in the disputed tribal lands of Pakistan.
“Suspected US drones have fired missiles into a compound used by anti-government fighters in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt, killing at least 16 people, officials said.
The missile strike on Saturday morning occurred in the Angoor Ada area of South Waziristan, official sources told Al Jazeera.”
Funny, the Pakistani government is irked with little planes flying all over its territory vapourizing people wily-nilly.
“US drone strikes are unpopular in Pakistan and the government in Islamabad has repeatedly urged Washington to end them.Pakistan says the attacks kill civilians, stoking resentment among the local population and thus prove to be counter-productive in the battle against armed groups. The attacks also undermine Pakistani sovereignty, Islamabad says.”
A big shiny gold star of fail as far as winning hearts and minds is concerned. Full marks for indiscriminate slaughter though as well as bolstering anti-American sentiment across a nuclear armed quasi-religious state. However, do not fear:
“But the US has persisted with the drone attacks, saying they were effective means to deal with Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters operating in Pakistan’s border areas with Afghanistan.”
But it is an effective way to get the bad guys… so we kill some innocents in the process. War is hell, it takes a few eggs to break an omelette et cetera. If this is not winning the war on terror, what is?
Chalmers Johnsten wrote a prescient book entitled “Blowback“. I fear that we have more ‘blowback’ coming our way very soon.
Behaving as media should.
Whistle-blowers usually take great risks to get out information to the public. I suspect that it was not WikiLeaks fault that this individual has been arrested, but rather a reverse engineering by the US military of who had access to what and where.
“The army intelligence specialist charged with leaking U.S. military secrets to the WikiLeaks website has been moved from Kuwait to a military jail in Virginia.
In a statement issued Friday, the U.S. army said Pte. Bradley Manning was flown Thursday to Quantico Marine Base, where he will be held while awaiting trial for leaking top-secret military intelligence to WikiLeaks, a site devoted to publishing leaked government and other sensitive documents.”
Mr. Manning, allegedly, has been a very naughty and very busy bee, apparently he is also responsible for the video from the gun cameras of attack helicopters shooting up civilians in Iraq along with the thousands of documents made available on WikiLeaks.
“White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the leak of tens of thousands of secret military documents already has jeopardized the lives of Afghans working with the U.S. and its war allies.”
If our media had actually been doing its job and reporting about what was happening in Afghanistan and Iraq, we would not have had the need for this particular leak. Instead through our journalistic mandarins continue to go meekly through their routines of obedience toward elite power. Journalism is not performing its original function any more, that is bringing the news to the people. Battered by calls for “objectivity” and “balance” what we get is a tendentious smear of propaganda; this vile pap masquarading as “news” for consumption by the public.
A side note, Mr.Manning will probably be publicly drawn and quartered for his heroic actions Al Jazeera opines in their article about the WikiLeaks source:
“In a statement, the defence department said Manning was transfered to the US “due to a potentially lengthy pre-trail confinement because of the complexity of the charges and an ongoing investigation.”
Our correspondent said that the US military wants to use Manning to send a message to future whistleblowers.
“If you violate the trust of security clearance, you will be prosecuted,” she said.”
A rational decision by the US military, but I do not think it will really help their security situation much in the long run. Too much malfeasance, for too long involving so many individuals, one will always have the temerity to challenge the system. This may not have happened if our media was less complacent when it came to analyzing and presenting facts about the current military imbroglios. There is some hope though.
The media is being slowly replaced, people can see the inherent bias in the system and now are cross checking and consulting many sources for a better view of what is happening in the world. So when I hear the newspapers bleating about their costs going up and advertisers leaving them I have no sympathy. If they did their job, people would buy their product. As is, who needs to see elite opinion reiterated for the nth time only in a different medium?
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…