From that Socialist Hotbed - Calgary

One doesn't expect to find a load of left-wing, hand-wringing namby-pamby from the Wild Rose province, so it might come as a surprise to read the latest piece from the Calgary Sun's Bill Kaufman on Afghanistan. I'm not even going to try to edit it. -


"How many yellow ribbons does it take to paper over reality?

"It's hard to say, but it's a cinch our prime minister is hoping meaningless jingoistic cliches will help us "stay the course."

"He's also counting on Canadians' ignorance of some sobering facts on the ground in Afghanistan and its environs.

"Stephen Harper won't want Canadians hearing how weary British troops in Helmand province struck a truce with Taliban forces, agreeing to a mutual withdrawal from the area that's likely to revert to an exclusively guerrilla sanctuary.

"It's time for Harper to cram some re-bar into the spines of our appeasing British allies.
In the same region, Canadian troops were forced to rescue besieged British soldiers and were greeted warmly. "When we arrived in Sangin, the locals began throwing rocks and anything they could at us; this was not a friendly place," a Canadian officer told the U.K.'s Independent newspaper.

"A leaked e-mail from a British soldier also supplies a rather different picture from what we've been getting.

"'We are not having an effect on the average Afghan. We are no better than the Taliban in their eyes, as all they can see is us moving into an area, blowing things up and leaving, which is very sad," he wrote.

"Canada's Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor openly admits our foes in Afghanistan can't be defeated militarily, yet we've sent over a squad of tanks to take on shadowy guerrillas.

"The 59% of Canadians who now believe our troops are locked in a futile struggle would have even more company had they listened to Afghan MP Malalai Joya speak recently in Ottawa of the heroin runners, misogynists, and brutal warlords "governing" the country under U.S. auspices.

"Joya, who says women's rights in most of her country are non-existent, expects to be assassinated -- not necessarily by the Taliban.

"Another tidbit you likely haven't read in your newspaper is the conclusion given by Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that the Taliban should be courted into joining the government. They'd certainly feel at home.

"During a tour of Afghanistan last week, Frist concluded the war can't be won militarily, the Taliban are too strong and supported by a wide swath of their countrymen.
"Military versus insurgency one-to-one doesn't sound like it can be won. It sounds to me ... that the Taliban is everywhere," he said.

"Our Tory warmakers are obviously not willing to listen to the Canadian people, but surely they'll heed one of their Republican mentors.

"Afghan puppet president and warlord-enabler Hamid Karzai -- rightly given the bum's rush by a gaggle of MPs during his recent Ottawa visit -- let slip the untidy fact "the source" of his country's insurgency problems lies in Pakistan.

"We're sending our Leopard I tanks into the wrong country?

"Canadians who might not favour invading Pakistan should view with foreboding the recrimination flying between Karzai and Pakistan's Pervez Musharaff over the growing chaos.
It speaks to the cauldron of dysfunction our troops have been sent into.

"Just as our "ally" Musharaff demeans Canada's sacrifice, it's widely believed his intelligence agents are aiding the Taliban.

"The cycle of betrayal continues with George W. Bush's Iraq fiasco, which U.S. intelligence services have concluded spawns and spreads jihadi violence.

"Canadian troops who've freed up U.S. forces to lose their war for terror in Iraq are reaping that whirlwind.

"Serving up schoolyard rhetoric like "we can't let the terrorist win" or dubbing outgunned guerrillas "cowards" won't alter Afghanistan's intractable realities."

What more can be said?