1 - 3 - 1.
One hundred and thirty-one.
That’s 20 more dead soldiers since the last time I wrote about the rising toll in Afghanistan.
And now it’s reported that the most recent victim, Pte. Jonathan Couturier, apparently considered the mission ‘a bit useless’.
It’s seeming that more people are finally questioning Canada’s actions in Afghanistan. Recent statements from Senator Colin Kenny compare the mission’s futility to the war in Vietnam. Robert Fowler, the Canadian diplomat who was kidnapped earlier this year, has also expressed doubts.
The promised date for withdrawal, 2011, seems just too far away.
4 comments:
We went into a country whose civilization dissolved into a ritual of violence because the continual wars there had destroyed all other emotional responses to life and all that remained among the men was the desire to be better killers. The Brits, the Russians and the Americans created the Taliban in this way. What would have happened if the money spent on military invasion had been given instead to the women's groups?
An interesting proposition, Janet, though I'm not sure I know which women's groups you mean. The groups for abused women in B.C. -- the ones our government has cut funding to?
If you're suggesting women leaders might have done any better than our current ones, I'm not so sure. Wasn't Maggie Thatcher in charge during the Falklands mess?
For some interesting insights on women in Afghanistan, see the main feature in today's Globe and Mail, "My dreams are gone".
Sorry - I should have clarified. There were some very courageous women in Afghanistan who were working towards change - they were working as a group and were creating schools for girls and challenging the Taliban. I can't remember the name of the group - but they were educated, intelligent and organized.
This was just before we invaded.
Just read the Globe and Mail article very quickly
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/behind-the-veil/my-dreams-are-gone/article1287246/
This makes the reason for our being in Afghanistan very questionable. How do you win a war against the oppression of women when the first victim of war is civil society?
Thanks for sharing the link.
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