The Loyal Opposition
It truly is difficult to credit the fierce determination and the rantings bordering on hysteria from the Parliamentary seats of the Opposition, shrieking about the Conservative government insulting Parliament by refusing to release un-redacted documents relating to Canada's participation with NATO in Afghanistan. Seems perfectly reasonable to most reasonable people who truly are not all that interested in the hugely overblown issue of Afghan detainees possibly suffering ill-treatment at the hands of their captors, fellow Afghans, that these documents refrain from entering the public sphere due to security concerns.
Of course, Canada joined NATO, as a paid-up-member-in-good-standing at the behest of the Liberal government that preceded the current Conservative-led government. At that time it was conceived as the right thing to do, to send Canadian troops to that misbegotten country, in fulfilling our international obligations. According to the Liberals who took us there, hoping to fend off criticism relating to our non-entry as combatants in Iraq. At that time it would have been just as clear as it was later, that Afghanistan is not the most human-rights-dedicated country in the world. Something the Liberal government more or less shrugged off as immaterial.
However, now that the Conservatives are in power, the issue becomes exceedingly front-and-centre, and the shouts and accusations and screams proceed apace. Despite that, when the current government had been alerted to some incidents of abuse relating to captured Taliban handed over by Canadian troops, there was intervention. In the larger order of things, with Canada's troops facing very real and constant danger, costing us dearly in lives lost, there is much to attend to. The health and well-being of those intent on killing international troops does not come top to mind.
When Canada and the United States and Britain and Holland and all the other NATO participating members finally leave Afghanistan is it even remotely possible that some bright minds believe that country will have done a U-turn in its social, political, religious and human-rights ideological underpinnings? That because of a brief (in the history of the ever-occupied country) time in which foreign troops with their superior attention to morals and ethics were among the Afghans, is it imagined that suddenly Afghanistan will transform to an enlightened democracy?
Yes, it is true that some conditions have improved in some areas of the country, most notably the capital, while elsewhere traditions and a backward culture and religious conviction inimical to equality and rights remain in the dark ages. A greater number of children, including girls, now attend school, and access to fundamental health care is available in some areas. Underlying all of this is the fact that women and girls are and will remain in thrall to the wishes of men. Underlying all of this is the fact that the government of Hamid Karzai, his minions, and the general society, remains irremediably corrupt.
Similarly, the Liberals had no interest whatever in enjoining the Americans to view Omar Khadr's status as a teen-age jihadist when they formed the government. And that was at a time when Mr. Khadr was a purportedly vulnerable, misunderstood young person only there through the evil machinations of his sinister al-Qaeda-supporting father who envisaged the role of brave mujahadeen for his sons. Now that he is a young adult (he might have been thought of as being a young adult at the mujahadeen training camp, in fact, and not a 'child-combatant' because of his chronological years) the Liberals have discovered that the nasty Conservatives have consigned this Warrior for Islam to purgatory.
In point of fact, Omar Khadr, and his obnoxious family clinging to violently fundamental, fanatical Islamism, had the opportunity to remain in the countries which celebrated the kind of religion that they favoured, but they chose to return to Canada which had given them safe haven and freedom to espouse their fundamentalist scorn for Canada, while ensuring they had access to universal health care and other social services simply unavailable in the human-rights-offending countries they cherished.
It's past time for the Liberals, for the NDP and the Bloc to stand down from their absurd bully pulpit of superior morals and ethics, and behave like responsible parliamentarians, positions they were voted to act responsibly within to reflect true and practical Canadian values, not freshly-minted pseudo-values of political opportunism.
Of course, Canada joined NATO, as a paid-up-member-in-good-standing at the behest of the Liberal government that preceded the current Conservative-led government. At that time it was conceived as the right thing to do, to send Canadian troops to that misbegotten country, in fulfilling our international obligations. According to the Liberals who took us there, hoping to fend off criticism relating to our non-entry as combatants in Iraq. At that time it would have been just as clear as it was later, that Afghanistan is not the most human-rights-dedicated country in the world. Something the Liberal government more or less shrugged off as immaterial.
However, now that the Conservatives are in power, the issue becomes exceedingly front-and-centre, and the shouts and accusations and screams proceed apace. Despite that, when the current government had been alerted to some incidents of abuse relating to captured Taliban handed over by Canadian troops, there was intervention. In the larger order of things, with Canada's troops facing very real and constant danger, costing us dearly in lives lost, there is much to attend to. The health and well-being of those intent on killing international troops does not come top to mind.
When Canada and the United States and Britain and Holland and all the other NATO participating members finally leave Afghanistan is it even remotely possible that some bright minds believe that country will have done a U-turn in its social, political, religious and human-rights ideological underpinnings? That because of a brief (in the history of the ever-occupied country) time in which foreign troops with their superior attention to morals and ethics were among the Afghans, is it imagined that suddenly Afghanistan will transform to an enlightened democracy?
Yes, it is true that some conditions have improved in some areas of the country, most notably the capital, while elsewhere traditions and a backward culture and religious conviction inimical to equality and rights remain in the dark ages. A greater number of children, including girls, now attend school, and access to fundamental health care is available in some areas. Underlying all of this is the fact that women and girls are and will remain in thrall to the wishes of men. Underlying all of this is the fact that the government of Hamid Karzai, his minions, and the general society, remains irremediably corrupt.
Similarly, the Liberals had no interest whatever in enjoining the Americans to view Omar Khadr's status as a teen-age jihadist when they formed the government. And that was at a time when Mr. Khadr was a purportedly vulnerable, misunderstood young person only there through the evil machinations of his sinister al-Qaeda-supporting father who envisaged the role of brave mujahadeen for his sons. Now that he is a young adult (he might have been thought of as being a young adult at the mujahadeen training camp, in fact, and not a 'child-combatant' because of his chronological years) the Liberals have discovered that the nasty Conservatives have consigned this Warrior for Islam to purgatory.
In point of fact, Omar Khadr, and his obnoxious family clinging to violently fundamental, fanatical Islamism, had the opportunity to remain in the countries which celebrated the kind of religion that they favoured, but they chose to return to Canada which had given them safe haven and freedom to espouse their fundamentalist scorn for Canada, while ensuring they had access to universal health care and other social services simply unavailable in the human-rights-offending countries they cherished.
It's past time for the Liberals, for the NDP and the Bloc to stand down from their absurd bully pulpit of superior morals and ethics, and behave like responsible parliamentarians, positions they were voted to act responsibly within to reflect true and practical Canadian values, not freshly-minted pseudo-values of political opportunism.
Labels: Canada, Conflict, Crisis Politics, Politics of Convenience
posted by Pieface | 1:50 PM
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