Stephane Dion is a Dreamer
A year or more ago, Stephane Dion committed the Liberals would pull Canadians out of Afghanistan after the mandate ends February 2009. He has now travelled there and has seen the good work Canadians are doing and been thanked by the Afghanistan government for that. So now he is saying that Canadians should stay after 2009 but not have a combat role.
So who is going to protect the Canadians who do the “good work”? American troops? German troops? What has he been smoking? The only thing that makes sense is to have Canadian troops there doing the protection. And when the Taliban bombs the workers (and they will), will the Canadian troops just say “naughty boys” or will they actually protect by chasing after the bombers? And unless someone in our army has not been listening to Romeo Dallaire, they will actually have effective weapons and they will chase the criminal bombers. So how is that much different to the current role?
Stephane is either a dreamer (I’m being kind) or he is speaking nonsense and is an idiot - hopefully a potential PM is not an idiot.
John Draper
February 26th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I have to comment on my own post! Looks like Stephane Dion was dreaming and not an idiot and that he has now listened to the ‘down to earth’ people. Dion’s agreement to support the modified Afghanistan motion is a good example of a minority Government working and politicians doing the right thing for the country.
Something good with politicians! Now there’s an example Cobourg politicians should follow. Maybe they’ll decide that paving a park with concrete in the summer for the sake of a winter ice rink is a bad idea.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Let’s widen the scope a little, shall we? I’ll just toss out the first bone of contention and see what happens:
Nobody knows why we’re in Afghanistan.
That’s right. Nobody can tell you why we’re there. Me, I like what Rick Salutin said last week in The Globe: We’re there because we’re there.
That’s about as difinitive as it gets. Oh, sure, we’ve heard just about all the shopworn, schoolboy Hillier-isms we can stomach and all we know is this: Each feeble excuse is more creative than the last. First it was default: ie. we’re not goint to Iraq so we’ll go to Afghanistan. Then it was about the ‘hunt’ (God…’hunt’ it’s enough to make you laugh, isn’t it?) for Osama bin-Laden. Then it was about sending little Afghan girls to school. Or builing the schools so little Afghan girls would have schools to go to. Then it was about the right of Afghan women to wear high heels under their burksa. Then….then… oh, the hell with it.
We’re there for us. For us and Tim Horton’s and Tiawanese bumber sticker makers so we can all out-patriot each other with I Support The Troops bumper stickers and jostle for prime overpass space everytime what’s left of some poor kid gets schlepped to Toronto for a completely unnecessary autopsy.
That’s the only reason that makes any sense to me: We’re there for us. It makes us feel good.
I say we get out. Now. Not later. NOW.
And….let me be the first to admit it: I can’t even find the godamned place on a map. Maybe because I don’t want to.