Protesters took to the streets of London last week as suits
from the world’s richest countries pondered the economic meltdown.
Demonstrators held up four big horse puppets to represent greed, war,
climate chaos and poverty—the four faces of a world crisis brought on
by a corrupt political and economic system driven by money, media,
militarism and madness. The demonstrations continued in France as NATO
marked its 60th anniversary. The US-led military alliance is currently
hammering the daylights out of Afghanistan, a desperately poor country
where tens of thousands have been forced from their homes by violence
and hunger.
In February, Amnesty International issued an urgent appeal for
humanitarian assistance. “The US and the international community should
adopt an approach that emphasizes the rights and well-being of the
Afghan people and not just focus on a military solution,” said Sam
Zarifi, the group’s Asia-Pacific director. Unfortunately, his plea fell
on deaf ears. US commander-in-chief B. Obama is increasing the number
of American troops in Afghanistan this year from 38,000 to 68,000.
Eleven aid agencies, including Oxfam and CARE, issued a report warning
that stepping up the war will force more Afghan civilians from their
homes and restrict their access to health care and education while
making it harder for aid workers to reach those in need of protection
and assistance.
Unluckily for the aid agencies, the release of their report
coincided with news that Afghan president Karzai had signed a new law
severely restricting women’s rights. Torrents of outrage poured from
the NATO pols’ larynxes. “The equality of men and women goes to the
heart of our value system,” huffed well-known feminist Stephen Harper.
The Canadian PM showed a rare flash of satirical humour when he warned
Karzai to scrap the new law or NATO would stop rebuilding Afghanistan.
Karzai, once hailed as an Afghan glamour boy, is now on Obama’s shit
list for demanding that the US halt its air raids on Afghan villages.
“We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes,” Karzai
said shortly after the US election in November. “This is my first
demand of the new president of the United States—to put an end to
civilian casualties.” The ungrateful Afghan leader also demanded a
timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and called for
negotiations with the Taliban. No wonder Obama dispatched VP Joe Biden
to Kabul to give Karzai a verbal spanking. No wonder secretary of state
Hillary Clinton described Afghanistan as a “narco state.” No wonder
Stephen Harper informed CNN last month that, “we are not going to ever
defeat the insurgency.” So why are we fighting the goddamn war
then?
Luckily, I got a chance to ask that question to brigadier-general
Denis Thompson, newly returned from Kandahar province, where he served
for nine months as commander of Canadian and NATO forces. The
brigadier-general, clad in blotchy, brown battle fatigues, is on a
publicity tour to talk up the progress we’re making in training the
Afghan military and police to disarm the Taliban. Thompson explained
that once Taliban insurgents are deprived of their weapons, they’ll be
forced to become an opposition political party. Here’s how he explained
it: “If the insurgents or the Taliban are marginalized by removing
their arms and by making them transition from being the armed
opposition to the government to just being another opposition party to
the government, then they are clearly at the mercy of the democratic
process in Afghanistan and as such, they’d actually have to deliver
something to the population in order to win them over.”
Truth to tell, I left the interview a bit skeptical, but having
pondered the BGen’s wise words, I can now declare I’m absolutely
convinced—and you should be too. No need for messy anti-war street
demos. No need to worry about mounting Canadian or Afghan casualties.
Professional police and troop training will save the day. Hip, hooray!
Two cheers for Afghan democracy.
Correction: We butchered Aaron Mckenzie Fraser’s name in a
photo credit last week. We apologize.
Send your upbeat war propaganda to brucew@thecoast.ca.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2009.