Bill Graham: But the Afghans Want Us There!

Opposition Liberal leader and former Defence Minister Bill Graham has definitely has drunk the right-wing kool-aid on the war in Afghanistan. Appearing on Sunday's CTV Question Period, he stated the following:

"...what our troops are doing over there is not only important for the people of Afghanistan who want them there and have asked them there for their security."

"You cannot confuse Iraq with Afghanistan. We are in Iraq because the Afghans want us there. This is not an invasion or an occupation. This is going to help people. Listen, when I met with Mr Karzai, he said "Please Canada. Take the lead in this mission".

Now, first of all, Mr Graham, this is an invasion/occupation. NATO didn't sign on as peacekeepers. There's still a war going on over there and, as much as we'd all like to pretend that Canadian troops are there just to "help people", the fact is that they are there as aggressors in a time of war.

As for your assertion that the Afghan people want our troops over there, answer this one for me: how do citizens of a country that's been attacked even have a choice in the first place? If the US decided to invade Canada tomorrow, do you honestly think you could say that the Americans were here because we wanted them here? The Afghans had no choice in the situation. They were bombed and they were occupied.

Let's stop fooling ourselves about Canadian troops being over there as just some benevolent force. They are taking part in military attacks just as all coalition members are.

Graham admitted in his interview that the policy in Afghanistan is right-wing and that he thinks Canada's Liberal Party should stay exactly where it's placed itself for too long now: in the centrist middle - trying to be everything to everyone. Paul Martin had begun pulling the party back to the left when he was in power and we small l liberals out here appreciated that effort.

If Graham's vision is as he stated, then liberals like me would be absolutely foolish to support him. Maybe Graham should be the next Liberal to cross the floor and join his buddies on the right. If he keeps this up, I'll start calling him Canada's Joe Lieberman.

(You can watch the video of those remarks here at approximately 13:00 on the counter.)