Home

Letter to Editor 2008 - Ottawa Citizen: Afghan Reasons

OTTAWA CITZEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Morgan Duchesney: 2008

Other Reasons for Canada’s Presence in Afghanistan

Letter writer Andrew MacDonald seeks, “…stories that cast other lights on our motives fro being there [Afghanistan] other than the self-serving ones we’re offered daily.” I will offer a few reasons for Canada’s presence in Afghanistan whose predictability is matched only by the degree to which their publication is muted and otherwise suppressed. All of the points I make are related to Canadian appeasement of the U.S. government and the transnational business interests they serve.

- Canada is in Afghanistan rather than Iraq to appease our powerful U.S. allies. The Afghanistan counter-insurgency, with its lower casualty rate and NATO approval, is more politically viable than the Iraq quagmire.

- Afghanistan is unfortunately 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 and must not be allowed to control its own resources. Hence, the Afghan people are saddled with the inept and corrupt puppet government of Karzai who was elected only after being “selected” by the U.S. government.
- Afghanistan is located at the centre of 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 justify and hide the main reasons or our presence in that unfortunate country, the Canadian government is pretending to believe that that Taliban are a genuine threat to the West. The excellent humanitarian work of Canadian soldiers and aid workers is being used as an emotional smokescreen to discourage dissent and mute critics through a cheap and transparent appeal to emotion. There, Mr. MacDonald, is the darkness dispelled?