Keep the faith, my darlings =)

Some excerpts from today's post in Exopolitics, in the Canadian National newspaper:

The intensity of the fighting increased dramatically in September 2006, when Canadian forces launched Operation Medusa to clear Pashmul (an area of vineyards near Kandahar) of an estimated 1,500 – 2,000 Taliban insurgents. Corporal Ryan Pagnacco from Waterloo, Ontario took part in the offensive – the biggest operation Canada had participated in since the Korean War — which started with a huge aerial bombardment by NATO warplanes and included the deployment of the controversial chemical weapon White Phosphorous. “After watching bomb after bomb drop on these targets, I wondered how anything could survive. I figured that when we went in, we‘d be walking into a ghost town”, remembers Pagnacco.

According to Antonio Giustozzi, an academic who has visited Afghanistan 15 times since 2001 and written a book on the insurgency, although NATO invited villagers to leave the area, “substantial numbers of civilians had opted to stay.” Despite the bombing — which included the dropping of 2000lb bombs – Taliban insurgents put up a staunch fight, firing an estimated 400,000 rounds of automatic ammunition and 2,000 rocket propelled grenades and losing over 1,000 men according to NATO.

The supposedly peaceful nature of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan is further dented by the 2007 revelation that Canadian forces had been handing over prisoners to Afghan security forces, in the full knowledge they would be tortured. Interviewing 30 men who had recently been captured in Kandahar, the Globe and Mail uncovered stories of systematic torture, including beatings, whipping with cables and electric shocks. Under intense pressure the Government halted the transfer of detainees halted in November 2007. However, the Globe and Mail had reported they had resumed, with Canadian officials saying they were satisfied the Afghan authorities had implemented new safeguards.

It is important to remember that rather than being a benign influence, Canada is in actual fact a indispensable part of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan which has led to thousands of Afghan deaths and many more refugees. For example, following field research in Helmand and Kandahar, the Senlis Concil, a respected (pro-war) thinktank, estimated that 2-3000 Afghan civilians may have been killed in Southern Afghanistan by NATO air strikes during 2006 alone.

With the Taliban growing in number and popularity – as evidenced by a spectacular prison break that had freed over 400 Taliban fighters — it is clear there is no military solution to the problems facing Afghanistan. Even the UK Defence Secretary Des Browne admits the very presence of NATO troops in the country has “energised” the Taliban. Giustozzi concurs, noting that “victims of abuses by both Afghan and foreign troops and of the side-effects of US reliance on air power” now form an “important source of recruits for the Taliban.

and

"Peacekeeper or warmonger? Canada’s future foreign policy is not fixed and it is up to every Canadian to make sure their nation once again begins to play a positive, peacekeeping role in world affairs."