NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is urging Canada to "stay the course" in Afghanistan after the mandate of "the mission" expires in 2009.
In Montreal to attend an international conference, Scheffer said, "I know how dramatic it is if Canadian soldiers pay the highest price," Scheffer said. "But I still say, you are there for a good cause ... You are there to defend basic universal values."
Fortunately no one called upon the Secretary-General to explain just whose "universal values" we are defending and what the Afghan people and their leadership think of those values. If we've learned anything surely it's that Afghan values and Western values don't always have a lot of universality.
Scheffer said it's important that all 26-members of the coalition carry on their missions. Carrying on and staying the course probably sounds pretty good to this guy because it avoids the fundamental issue of why some nations, such as Canada, are carrying far more than their fair share of the burden.
The Japanese envoy to Afghanistan said 2 days ago, "it may take about three more years to eradicate the illegal armed groups".
ReplyDeleteVision like this is delighfully reminiscient of Viet Nam era US generals who constantly sold the message of better days ahead.
Having Generals in charge of forecasting Foreign Affairs is like sanctioning uprotected sex in Africa; history clearly indicates you're likely going to get real f......
Remember our own great general, Rick Hillier, saying we were going over there to kill "scumbags" and assuring everyone they were only a few dozen in number? What a fool!
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