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Canada Justifies and Mythologizes Afghanistan Tragedy

As published in Media Co-op: May 28 2014

Now that the regular troops have returned and the celebrations are over, it is time to restate some facts about recent events in Afghanistan because Canada’s elite academics and corporate journalists are busily sanitizing and valorizing Canada’s role in this bloody travesty. One hundred and fifty-six Canadians died in Afghanistan so we need an acceptable mythology to justify the next round of sacrifice.

The excellent humanitarian work of Canadian troops in Kandahar province has been employed to shame and silence critics of Canada’s deeper role in Afghanistan. Let us not forget that the U.S. government cynically empowered the brutal and misogynistic Mujahedeen back in the late 1970’s when their aid was required against the Soviets. Afghan society had never recovered from the results of that empowerment and now we are there to supposedly save Afghans from the very situation our allies created. Prior to the resurrection of fundamentalist Islam during that time, Afghan society was making real progress on human rights and democratization.

Unfortunately for Afghans, they share a border with the region's three nuclear powers: China, Pakistan and India. There is no love between India and Pakistan and the economies of China and India are expanding at a phenomenal pace. The U.S. government must maintain a military presence in this vital and volatile region to protect its global interests.

The lives of Canadian and other NATO troops were sacrificed partly to make Kandahar province safe for a natural gas pipeline that has yet to be built. U.S. oil company Unocal postponed the Kandahar section of its TAPI pipeline project in 1998 and a variety of consortiums have been eager to resurrect the project. TAPI stands for Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Afghanistan is located at the centre of a group of oil and natural gas producers such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran. The U.S. government and the transnational corporations they serve must control access to these resources. Afghanistan itself has considerable natural resources that its people must not be allowed to control. Hence, the Afghan people were saddled with the corrupt puppet governments like that of Karzai who was elected after being "selected" by the U.S. government. The latest choice is no better perhaps we should leave Afghanistan to the Afghans and let them arrange their own affairs. They certainly cannot be conquered.
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