Canadian Troops in Afghanistan

Bad enough, sad enough for a determinedly peace-loving country like Canada to have to send her troops to a foreign country at a time of war. During a time of war waged against an already war-weary population by an occupying force whose purpose it was to impose a religiously-based totalitarian regime without mercy upon a country, while harbouring other theist-inspired radicals whose greater purpose was to impose that self-same totalitarian rule on a much wider scale, and in its determined search to destroy a social and political and cultural structure which it detested, sent a horrific message of wholesale destruction to the very seat of the capitalist social democracy it most hated.

The Canadian presence in Afghanistan is twofold: one; in response to the message that al Qaeda delivered to the world that it could and would strike forcefully and fearlessly anywhere in the democratic world, and two; in the effort to extirpate and destabilize the deadly al Qaeda force it was necessary to do likewise to the religious body that sheltered and encouraged their activities. The Taliban, whose presence in Afghanistan assured that Sharia law of a most resolutely rigid nature was imposed on the population, resulting in the virtual enslavement of women and children, was attacked and pursued by a NATO force with UN support.

As a member of NATO, Canada responded as it must, as it must also as a responsible member of the global community concerned about the right to life, safety and security for all countries sans intervention by destabilizing forces. Afghanistan is an ancient country which has been invaded by outside forces since time immemorial. The country is a fierce, war-like, tribal culture not known to take kindly to external invasion of their sovereignty. Yet the Afghanistan parliament, elected after the ouster of the Taliban (and comprised partially - unfortunately - of former war-lords well known for their human-rights abuses), has pleaded with NATO and Canada to remain until such time as it is feasible for the country's own troops and policing agencies to take control of safety and security for its citizens.

NATO countries see it as their global duty to assist the new parliament of the country, but above all, to assist in the building up of new civil infrastructure within the country, to assist the population in adjusting to their new reality. We are informed that women parliamentarians in the new government are fighting for equal treatment for women in this male-dominated culture, with a fierce determination. We are made aware that great strides have been advanced in health care in Afghanistan as a result of the NATO presence.

There has been a marked decrease in infant and maternal mortality rates in the country. Children have been returned to the classroom, as schools have been re-built and teachers are now assured they will not be subject to attack and grisly murders as a result of now teaching girls as well as boys, previously forbidden under the Taliban, where boys-only madrases ensured girl children were kept at home with their mothers, both unable to venture out into public without complete head-to-toe covering and without being escorted by a male relative. Women, particularly widows, are now able to work outside the home, instead of being constrained to the home and slow starvation.

Yet now there is a public furore in Canada over the question of Canadian troops handing over Taliban prisoners to Afghanistan's military for incarceration, because of alleged torture. Western values which certainly include adherence to the Geneva Convention on prisoner treatment eschew torture with a certain kind of delicate sensibility; it is simply not done by civilized societies. Afghanistan's social, political and religious culture is closer to their tribal past than it is to the western ideal of civilized behaviour.

Still, it does not express the official government position to engage in torture in Afghanistan. But this is a country at war, the most savage type of war with the Taliban adversary - determined to regain its totalitarian stranglehold over the governance of the country, and the insurgents don't recognize any western niceties of behaviour in dealing with their enemies; beheading and torture are routinely practised at that end. Which, evidently, hasn't stopped Taliban apprehended by NATO troops from complaining of having been tortured by government troops.

Within Canada, the current government has been hard pressed by the official opposition political parties to ensure that any Taliban captured by Canadians are not subjected to torture, alleged or otherwise, by government troops in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Human Rights Commission, underfunded and in its infancy, is doing its best to ensure that torture doesn't occur. The government of Afghanistan is doing its utmost to assure its allies that torture is not an official position of the government.

Sadly, the Canadian politicians who are now on their high horses demanding that the current government of Canada take concrete steps to ensure that alleged torture doesn't take place are playing unforgivably stupid political games. The opposition Liberal party, while in government was in receipt of yearly reports by Canadian diplomats stationed in the country warning that torture was an ongoing concern. While in government, the Liberals appeared unconcerned about the matter; now they're in opposition they're suddenly seized with the immorality of torture, as practised in a tribal society.

An incredible betrayal of gross hypocrisy on the part of the Canadian political opposition. On balance, what might take precedence, the restoration of human rights in a population deprived of same through constraints to livelihood and culture and the gross abuse of women and children, or the alleged torture of those very abusers?