Bleak Outlook for Afghan Mission

Today we have further confirmation of the longstanding suspicions of many progressives, namely that the NATO mission in Afghanistan is likely doomed to failure. The report leaked to WaPo indicates that US Gen. McChrystal has serious doubts about the ability of NATO to overcome the Taliban insurgency. The one caveat he does give is that success (however he is defining it) could be secured by adding troops.

More troops from where?

Most NATO countries, including Canada, are lukewarm to the idea of pouring more forces into Afghanistan and the US itself still has major commitments in Iraq. In the meantime the accusations of corruption inside Afghanistan likely do little to invigorate anyone in NATO with the idea that democracy or human rights are being defended. Karzai is looking more and more like your average Western-backed pseudo-democratic puppet dictator.

We need to seriously ask what, if anything, we can do for Afghanistan.

What Context?

How often is this the case? The Fox News twits who mocked Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are now apologising, but at the same time they are pleading context. What context is needed for your remarks Greg Gutfeld? I would love to know.

Afghan Mission till 20xx?

Last night on CBC there was more talk about extending Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. Wait a sec, didn’t Harper panel of magical wizards foretell that by 2011 Afghanistan would turn into a democratic and stable society?  It’s supposed to be totally different this time since supposedly this will be a development-focused mission, but really, how are you going to do that without security. We are stuck in a war that we cannot win in a place where a sizable chunk of the population resents us.

Shorter Robert Gates

“No one has done more than Canada, now Canada should do even more.“

Never mind that neither their officers nor our officers seem to understand the significant ethnic rivalries in Afghanistan that are readily apparent from, say, reading The Kite Runner.

Remember, but Remember Everything

I have mixed feelings about Remembrance Day. Though the holiday commemorates all veterans, its date and its imagery belong to World War I. From what I’ve read on the topic, the Canadians fought in absolute hell. This deserves remembering. The part that gets obscured though that what our soldiers did in the mud of the Ypres salient was part of a meaningless imperial clusterfuck. 60 000 Canadians died for under the pretext that it was really really important to protect Belgian neutrality. In reality we were fighting because Imperial Germany was perceived as a threat to Britain’s hegemony and its colonial possessions.

Remember the sacrifice that our soldiers made, but remember that it was made for reasons that had nothing to do with the banalities of “freedom” or whatever. It was one imperial system against another and nothing else. The tragedy here was that we had to send so many to die for this nonsense.

Welcome to the Occupation

It might seem like a relief for Canada’s soldiers in Afghanistan that the US Marines are sending a contingent to southern Afghanistan. Except that the Marines have an agenda of their own there:

“General Dan McNeill, the U.S. Army officer who currently commands the 40-nation NATO coalition fighting in Afghanistan, said in an interview that he hopes Canada and other nations will adopt U.S.-style tactics and doctrines, including lengthier deployments for soldiers, harder-line opium-poppy-eradication strategies and the use of military forces in reconstruction and humanitarian work.”

Lengthier deployments? I don’t imagine a lot of our soldiers are clamouring for that. And poppy eradication? When are those drug war ideologues in the US military and government going to realize that nothing makes a farmer hate them more than the destruction of his livelihood? If you want to fight the Taliban, try to keep the main thing the main thing.

Bernier the Bumbling Imperialist

According to an article in The Toronto Star, the Afghans were going to can the governor of Kandahar until Maxime Bernier opened his big mouth. Aside from our general maltreatment of First Nations, Canada has never really chosen to act as an imperial power. If we can’t handle this sort of delicate manipulation of the local scene, that’s one more reason we shouldn’t be wasting blood and treasure in Afghanistan.

Attacks up in Afghanistan

Can we set aside the nostrum that this means that the insurgency is in its “last throes” and accept that it’s a bad thing for Afghanistan and for our troops there.

Two Seats Over

Sadly we have lost another soldier. Right now I’m in Sooke, BC, even further removed from Afghanistan, physically speaking, than when I’m at home. On the flight out here there was a soldier just a couple seats away from me. Generally Canadian Forces travel in green – at least when I’ve seen them out and about, this guy was in khaki though. I wondered where he had been, was he coming back from the great Over There. I don’t know. The people we lose are for the most part only as close as another anonymous air traveler. I suppose that depersonalizes war, we can feel bad for a soldier when they die, but we are not left with that dull ache that their families will probably never fully exorcise. Instead we see our men and women in uniform as, at best, someone in the same general vicinity as we are.

Delaying the Inevitable

Here’s another bit of tiresome boilerplate on why we ought to support the Afghan mission indefinitely. Once again “the left” is accused of not caring about the Afghans. In the world of the mission’s supporters “care” = indefinite, unconditional support for Canadian military presence in the worst part of Afghanistan. Nothing I’ve read about Afghanistan makes me think that we can fix it in five, ten, or twenty years. Others have tried, lots of them. I’m sure that our troops are well-intentioned and I hope they’ve been well trained and well equipped, but in the end I wonder if this mission is akin to having them stand on the beach and tell the tide to go back. This is not Germany in 1946 or something. Until I see a great deal of evidence to the contrary, I reserve the right to be skeptical about this mission’s chances as it’s currently configured.