That's the accusation leveled by Peter MacKay's mouthpiece, Dan Dugan. The worst thing is, if Dugan's right, the NDP didn't take on a very daunting challenge.
Documents obtained by the NDP under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that the Canadian military pretty much told Karzai what to say when he addressed Canada's parliament last September:
An internal military report, provided to the federal party under Access to Information, says members of the Canadian Forces strategic advisory team accompanied Mr. Karzai and his Afghan delegation to New York before his arrival in Ottawa last September for a historic address to a joint session of the House of Commons and the Senate.
It says that "at the request of president's office" the Canadian military team "prepared initial draft of president's address to Parliament Sept. 22."
The note goes on to say that: "It was noted that key statistics, messages and themes, as well as overall structure, were adopted by the president in his remarks to joint session."
NDP defence critic Dawn Black said the report is an example of how the Conservative government is trying to manipulate public opinion for the country's military involvement in Afghanistan.
"President Karzai's address to Parliament was an elaborately staged political stunt by this government to sell Canadians on the combat mission in Kandahar," said Ms. Black, who called Mr. Karzai a "front man" for the Conservative government.
Karzai a stooge for Harper? Well, the way things are going for him at home in Kabul, maybe this will give him a new career opportunity.
It pains me to think that the sacrifices of soldiers like Cpl. Hornburg will be in vain if we don't bring 'good governance' to Afghanistan. I supported entering into Afghanistan, but I wonder can we bring 'good governance' and help the Afghan people help themselves. We lost some young men from the small town I grew up in last year. Over a thousand people came to support the families. These men gave everything! They gave everything in vain if we forget our prime objective and our government turns this struggle into a political tool.
ReplyDeleteTim I share your concerns. It is distressing to accept that the campaign in Afghanistan has been almost as mismanaged as the American adventure in Iraq. Our soldiers are performing well, very well, and with the best of intentions but their committment and sacrifice is not shared at the political level, whether that be in North America or Europe. The crumbling foundation of our failure was created in the second year of this six-year effort. Too little for too long and now it's too late. We can't start over from scratch, much as I wish we could. We long ago delivered Afghanistan into the hands of the warlords, mujahadeen and the insurgents.
ReplyDelete"... if we don't bring 'good governance' to Afghanistan."
ReplyDeleteTim ... Afghanistan is one of the wildest human frontiers left on the planet. Neither the British Empire nor the Soviet Russians (using many more times the troops that we have) were able to tame this country. How do you even know that the people there want our version of 'governance' - they seem to want to cling to their warlords and their version of Islamism.
They see us as invaders. They will never embrace what you are offering them.
It's time to understand what kind of mess we have gotten into there.
Yes, I am assuming people do want to live in peace. Unfortunately war does benefit some. Now that you mentioning Islamism, my gut feeling is it used by too many as tool of war. That said I am going to puke.
ReplyDelete