One Hundred and Forty Lost

"We have men and women who are over there putting their lives on the line to help the population in its struggle against the Taliban. These remarks are not helpful. And in the context of the work, the dangerous work, that our people are doing, they are completely unacceptable to Canada and I'm sure the same is true for all of our allies." Prime Minister Stephen Harper, responding to the "completely unacceptable" remarks flowing from the poppy-mouth of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

In ongoing hearings in the House of Commons the testimony of a Canadian Forces military police officer lends authority and credence to most Canadians' disinterest in the accusations led by the Liberal leader and backed up by other opposition parties in Parliament accusing the government of overlooking the plight of Afghan detainees. Sgt. Carol Utton was personally involved in the transfer of such suspected Taliban, detained by Canadian military personnel and handed over to Afghan authorities.

This is Canada fulfilling our obligations as a paid-up member of NATO and a staunch ally of the United States, deploying Canadian soldiers to a far-off country whose people laboured under a state of theocratic duress and oppression, aiding the legally-formed and NATO-supported government to apprehend the insurgent forces to enable the government to grow and create an atmosphere of calm and security. Where else would those detainees go but to the prisons of the country?

That they are harsh prisons merely bespeaks the harshness of the social and religious and political and cultural environment. This is Afghanistan. Yet in testimony that Sgt. Utton delivered to the Military Police Complaints Commission, it was made abundantly clear that our military was stressed and hard put to occupy themselves with the presumed welfare of enemy combatants. They were, in fact, ignorant of the supposition that those detainees might suffer ill treatment.

Sgt. Utton, in fact, stressed that the detainees, on being transferred to Afghan authority were 'delighted'. This is credible, given that people of the region detest the presence of foreigners, always have and always will, and always have fought their presence, and continue to do so. Take President Hamid Karzai, for example, as an exemplar of conflicted Afghan emotions with respect to the foreigners on the soil of his country. He came to Canada and addressed Parliament, pleading for our presence in his country.

On the one hand, he desperately wants NATO, the U.S. and Canada to remain right where they are, supporting his corrupt regime. He also very much appreciates, thank you very much, the fact that all those foreign countries are draining their treasuries on behalf of his longevity as prime minister and in assisting his parliament to do what it cannot or will not exert itself toward; build required civic infrastructure. And he weeps crocodile tears for our dear departed.

Yet, as a proud Afghan he utterly detests the extremely insulting interference of western agencies, telling him, the president of Afghanistan, how he is expected to comport himself, casting doubt, in fact, on the legitimacy, given the past election contretemps, of his continued elevation as president of that benighted country. He takes grave umbrage at accusations of graft, corruption, nepotism, for these are Western words and concepts meaning nothing whatever to an Afghan.

(Unless you're an Afghan woman sitting in Parliament and shouting at the war-lords seated there also, with their history of murder and profiteering, understanding while that is occurring that you're helping to seal your fate. Unless you're an Afghan woman who insists she will be educated, will practise her profession, will not wear a confining fabric prison about herself, and will see her children educated, health and prospering.)

President Karzai is, in fact, completely fed up with being treated like a puppet, for that he most definitely is not. Would a puppet admire, befriend and invite Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an honoured guest and treasured neighbour, to Afghanistan? Would a puppet declare the international community as persona non grata in the election proceedings of his country? Would a puppet insist that joining the Taliban might be preferable to suffering the slights from foreigners accusing him of (gasp!) corruption?

Neither a puppet nor an obsequious toady then, is he. What he most certainly is not, also, is a fit ally of the West, and in that spirit he fits the mold of other 'allies' in the region quite handily. All of whom have learned how simple it is to milk the West of its material assets, murder its people, and still somehow gain the respect of their leaders, as reliable and tolerated allies.