Real Change
columnist: Brian Hatfield

Topic: War
Canadian Government's Shame: 100 Dead Soldiers

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An alternative view on the motivations behind Canada's involvement in the Afghanistan conflict.

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by Brian Hatfield
(libertarian)
Monday, December 8, 2008

Canada's Afghan War

According to a recent poll, the vast majority of Canadians do not want the military to be involved in Afghanistan any longer. Canada has spent at least $7.5 Billion dollars on the mission which represents 3.2% of our entire federally collected annual tax revenues. In a recent report, the projected cost of the Afghanistan mission is expected to reach $18 billion by 2011. To put that into some perspective, that's more than British Columbia's annual expenditure for environment, healthcare, welfare, community services, small businesses, agriculture and forestry combined. Staggering though the number is, the financial cost pales in comparison to the number of Canadian soldiers killed since the beginning of the war, which has now reached 100. A bleak fact is that the number killed each year is rapidly increasing and has been year after year. The number of Afghani civilian deaths has been suppressed but is estimated to be somewhere between 9,000 and 35,000. The former Commander of Nato forces in Europe, British Ambassador to Afghanistan and a departing British Commander in Afghanistan have all indicated that Afghanistan is an unwinnable war. Going against the wishes of the Nation, Canada's government has elected to subject our troops to danger until at least 2011. Already, Senators say it is likely that the mission will be extended past that date.

Questionable Motives for Occupation

Newspaper reports and officials repeat the mantra that the invasion of Afghanistan is about 'building democracy' and defeating the Taliban'. Many who recall that the invasion was begun by the US on the premise that Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda terrorists were hiding in Afghanistan question Canada's current motives. It's interesting to note that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 are not on the FBI's list of crimes that Bin Laden is wanted for. The reason given for this by the FBI is that there is "no hard evidence" connecting Bin Laden to 9/11. The FBI also lists the Nationalities of the 9/11 hijackers as Saudi and Egyptian; there is no mention of any Afghani Nationals. The highly questionable ties of the US to the Bin Laden family and the US funded origins of al-Qaeda do little to instil faith in the government's declared reasons for the war. With the US attempting to secure no-bid oil contracts in Iraq and a proposal for a natural gas pipeline to traverse Afghanistan, which we are told the Canadian military intends to defend, many believe that there are alternative reasons behind the wars in the Middle East. These facts amongst others understandably lead many to believe that the goals of the wars in the Middle East are primarily to do with the control of energy reserves, resources and geo-strategically important areas. The conclusion can be drawn that our military's increasingly brutal occupation of Afghanistan marks the current era of imperialism.

Domestic War on Canadians

Here at home, we have also seen an impact of the 'war on terror'. Outside of the compliant mainstream media, the Canadian and US Governments have been widely criticised for using the war as an excuse to generate fear in order to make it easier to clamp down on the rights and freedoms of our own population. The threat of domestic terrorism is very often over inflated, as evidenced by the Justice Department's own terrorism statistics report. The number of people charged for terrorism offenses is habitually overstated. Despite the total number of people successfully convicted for terrorism in the US standing at 39 (as of 2005), a huge terrorist watch list now holds over a million names, including people who have criticized the government, peaceful demonstrators, Nelson Mandela, students, US Senators, and don't forget Nuns. Canada appears to be following suit with our own no fly list. The first Canadian to be denied access to a flight occurred in September this year. However, the real perpetrators of terrorist attacks don't often fit the preconceived notion of a terrorist profile. In 1999, a court found that the RCMP, colluding with Alberta energy, bombed a gas pipeline in order to frame a local organic farmer who refused to sell his land to the energy company. More recently, in a similar fashion but on a grander scale, it is reported that Dick Cheney proposed staging terrorist attacks against the US Navy to frame Iran and provide a pretext to invading the oil rich Middle Eastern country. The practice of Governments staging terror events to frame people and Nations is not a new tactic. Given that the true occurrence of terrorism is so infrequent, it is troubling to know that in the US, the definition of a 'terrorist' has been widened so much that it now includes anti-war protestors and animal rights protestors. In a disturbing turn of events, the US has now begun to arrest journalists in situations where they previously would not have. Equally disturbing is the mass arrest of people sitting in a park. As in China, free speech and right to protest are being eroded. Within our own borders, the scandal involving government agent provocateurs in Ottawa during peaceful demonstrations and a later admission of guilt indicates how far our government is willing to go to stifle political dissent. It must be questioned how government can be expected to bring democracy to the Afghan people when such undemocratic actions are undertaken at home. This should concern every Canadian citizen. The window of opportunity for challenging the government's behaviour is arguably closing. Thomas Jefferson once wrote," The only security of all is in a free press". The one remaining source of free and open information the internet is being targeted for regulation in Canada. Pornography and terrorism are being used as the wedge issues, but if the course of the 'war on terror' is a dependable guide, once the legal framework is in place, the target will likely widen to include the people, blogs and websites who question the actions of government. Thankfully, thousands of people understand how valuable the internet is, and there is widespread opposition to the censorship of the net.

The irony of 'helping to build' Afghanistan

The premise that the Canadian military is in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country is ironic, given that the Canadian government is working hard to get rid of Canada's border with the US to effectively dissolve Canada as a sovereign nation. Over 66,000 Canadians on Facebook oppose the current development of a North American Union. Similar to the European Union, where the majority of the UK's laws are now made outside the UK, the US, Canada and Mexico are quietly being merged. Alarmingly, an agreement was signed on Valentines Day 2008 whereby American troops are now allowed to march on Canadian soil thereby laying the groundwork for the merging of our militaries. This is concerning given that the American police state has been further expanded with the recent announcement that 20,000 uniformed troops are to be deployed domestically by 2011. A poll earlier this year showed that deeper integration with the US goes against the wishes of the people. Many contend that Integration serves to provide our valuable resources to America and to increase the profits of multinational corporations. Trade agreements, political agreements and privatization allow the US access to our valuable natural resources. The power generation, railways, healthcare, highways and water resources amongst many other things have been, or are in the process of being privatized. Most of British Columbia's previously publically owned resources have been gifted to private corporations. The lack of universal public outrage lays testament to the indoctrinated political apathy that has gripped our society.

However, in these tumultuous times a growing interest in the behaviour of government appears to have been kindled. Perhaps the economic turmoil will catalyze a public interest in the Afghanistan conflict, if only for the self serving notion that our shrinking tax revenue should not be squandered on a foreign conflict. We can only hope.

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©2008 Brian Hatfield, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Monday, December 8, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Brian Hatfield only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Brian Hatfield is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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