(no subject)
afghanistan!
what to do?
What should Canada do about Afghanistan? Considerring the fact that we are there, I mean? From what I understand, we (not America) are having a good effect on the place: in between getting rocket-attacked, the CF has been building infrastructure, and their prescence has a stabalizing effect on the region. The Afghan dollar has been going up from its miserable pre-9/11 place. Obviously the initial american invasion and occupation of the country was harmful, but we are cleaning up where the americans fuck up.
That being said, does it matter? Should we leave afghanistan to themselves so they may repress their women? Is the projection of US power into the region, and the theft of their natural resources worth the use of Canadian military power for anything other than self defence?
My answer? Personally, as much as I'd like to continue to rebuild afghanistan with the taxdollars of everybody else(1), I do not feel qualified to suggest a NATO/ISAF force is apropriate here. NATO is a military, and offensive force, and while I was in a paramilitary cadet group for 5 years, if I were to recommend any offensive action in a foreign country (outside of perhaps america, for historical reasons), that would make me a Chickenhawk. And I do not want to be a chickenhawk--that strikes me as something of a particularily bad shade of hypocrite, which I try not to be, in general. I am suspicious of increased costs associated with the military expidition there and while there are certainly benefits, as I've listed above, the people in afghanistan could easily be elsewhere, where the UN has designated needs peacekeeping. Lebanon would be a good start, but Iran might be a better start. Would america nuke Iran if Canada had 50,000 or whatever peacekeepers in the area?
That being said I do not necessarily fault anyone for wanting the war to stop or continue in afghanistan for other reasons. Those are just mine.
.
what to do?
What should Canada do about Afghanistan? Considerring the fact that we are there, I mean? From what I understand, we (not America) are having a good effect on the place: in between getting rocket-attacked, the CF has been building infrastructure, and their prescence has a stabalizing effect on the region. The Afghan dollar has been going up from its miserable pre-9/11 place. Obviously the initial american invasion and occupation of the country was harmful, but we are cleaning up where the americans fuck up.
That being said, does it matter? Should we leave afghanistan to themselves so they may repress their women? Is the projection of US power into the region, and the theft of their natural resources worth the use of Canadian military power for anything other than self defence?
My answer? Personally, as much as I'd like to continue to rebuild afghanistan with the taxdollars of everybody else(1), I do not feel qualified to suggest a NATO/ISAF force is apropriate here. NATO is a military, and offensive force, and while I was in a paramilitary cadet group for 5 years, if I were to recommend any offensive action in a foreign country (outside of perhaps america, for historical reasons), that would make me a Chickenhawk. And I do not want to be a chickenhawk--that strikes me as something of a particularily bad shade of hypocrite, which I try not to be, in general. I am suspicious of increased costs associated with the military expidition there and while there are certainly benefits, as I've listed above, the people in afghanistan could easily be elsewhere, where the UN has designated needs peacekeeping. Lebanon would be a good start, but Iran might be a better start. Would america nuke Iran if Canada had 50,000 or whatever peacekeepers in the area?
That being said I do not necessarily fault anyone for wanting the war to stop or continue in afghanistan for other reasons. Those are just mine.
.