Five Canadian soldiers killed in one week in Afghanistan. Thirty-eight this year. If her majesties loyal opposition had any guts they would bring down the government on the question of whether our troops should be pulled out of that country immediately. I know that a majority of the House of Commons voted to extend our commitment to NATO until 2010, but, we do get to change our minds as circumstances change. And they have changed.
The government of Afghanistan abuses, some say torturers, prisoners. The government of Afghanistan is in place as a result of a rigged election. Relatives of the President of Afghanistan hold key positions in the government of that sorry country. Ministers known to be corrupt have been reappointed subsequent to the election by the President of Afghanistan. As the war escalates more civilians are killed and the citizenry of Afghanistan increasingly sees NATO and their own government as complicit in those deaths. Al Queda may inspire and finance the Taliban, but it is universally accepted that their headquarters are not in Afghanistan but in Pakistan, supposedly a friend of the west, but one which has taken precious little action to strike at the Al Queda leadership. The current sources of the Al Queda threats against the west are in Africa, not Afghanistan. The Taliban and a significant portion of the Afghan people rely on opium poppies to eke out an existence and NATO has targeted this crop and economy without building an infrastructure that will replace it.
Canadian soldiers are dying for absolutely nothing in this country. It is time to bring them home. It is time to walk away.
We are not fighting Al Queda in Afghanistan. We are not fighting to uphold democracy in Afghanistan. We are not fighting so that egalitarian values might be extended to women or Christians or gays or any other group in Afghanistan. We are sure as hell not fighting for a right cause in Afghanistan.
It is time to call in the planes and bring our troops home.
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