On Afghanistan: We Need More Than Talking Points

I read this Toronto Star article by NATO's secretary general today with a sense of deja vu. Scrolling back through my archives, I found an early September TO Star editorial by Peter MacKay with the same set of talking points, which I dissected in this post at that time.

Here's where we stand now: we have a Conservative government that pushed a motion through parliament this past spring to extend its NATO commitment in Afghanistan for an additional two years without an exit strategy or an examination of the situation on the ground at that time because the defence committee members have never even been in Afghanistan. We have the US government pressuring NATO to do more while its troops cut and run along with much-needed funding, leaving NATO to beg for help from other countries. We have dwindling Canadian public support for the mission. And we have politicians feeding us talking points while treating us like children by continually chirping the Rumsfeldian talking point that the media are not giving us the full Good News™ story.

Lost in all of this, of course, are the people of Afghanistan who deserve far more than what this so-called coalition has been able to secure to this point in a war that was run on Rumsfeld's 'stealth' military concept - smaller numbers of troops, money and too much reliance on technology - which has failed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Considering that, many Canadians still believe that our handful of troops should stay. What some fail to realize is that if the Pentagon had actually supplied the necessary number of forces to begin with, our troops could have easily left this year with minimal consequences while countries like the US who had better equipped militaries would have been more effective in the region. Instead, we are stuck - losing lives and without a comprehensive plan.

November 11th is Remembrance Day. We owe our soldiers more than talking points. Whether you believe they should stay until the end of this 2 year commitment or that they should start coming home next week, they need to know that we are supporting them by examining the truth of the situation and that we will pressure their civilian commanders to treat them with the respect they deserve by ensuring that those in charge are held fully accountable every step of the way.