Surprise! A Not Weed Related Post

I could always post on my disappointment over Ale Yarok failing to gain the necessary threshold to gain Knesset seats in Israel but I just got to talk about a huge issue facing Canada.

And that issue is Afghanistan. I have practically stopped watching CBC because they are about our Afghanistan adventure. Now back in the day, I was one of those right wingish guys fighting the liberal hegemony on society so I was all about Afghanistan and Bush. The catalyst that shifted me from the right to the left was the war in Iraq. I read about the possibility some time in 2002 in Time and I laughed out loud. I'm like Bush is not that stupid, Iraq doesn’t have any WMD and American/UN sanctions are killing thousands of Iraqi children every month. I lived in Saudi Arabia about 5 minutes from an airbase and in 1998 I remember a lot of planes going to bomb Iraq. Of course I vastly over estimated Bush's intelligence.

So from than on I have questioned pretty much everything the government stands for and this led me to our military adventure in Afghanistan.

We are there for two reasons: one is stated and the other is unstated.
The one that we talk about is FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY.
Notice how Osama or even Al-Qaeda is never mentioned anymore. So we aren't even fighting terrorists who attacked America but people who used to harbor them.
So the Taliban eh? We are fighting them than. Ok but who are we fighting for?
The Northern Alliance.
Who are not very innocent when it comes to human rights abuse.

Its role will be to monitor and safeguard human rights in Afghanistan. But since the fall of the Taleban last November, commanders from each of the three factions of the Northern Alliance have been accused of atrocities.
"Our research found that Pashtuns throughout northern Afghanistan are facing serious abuse, including beatings, killings, rapes, and widespread looting," said Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. [Source]

But what about the women we liberated:

No radical changes have so far been made over the past three years to improving women's condition. Creating a Ministry of Women and Independent Commission for Human Rights and installing apolitical and pro-fundamentalist women to a few high positions heals no wounds. It would bear no significant value unless there is a reliance on the true representation of women.

Basically, it is an elusive dream to expect even a minor positive change in
the condition of women until the warlords who continue to suppress people in their dominated territories by using guns, force and dollars are no more. The whole country should not be judged on the basis of a few changes seen in Kabul. And nor it be concluded - as is being simplistically viewed by the Western media - that "Afghan women have acquired freedom" while a mile away ill-fated girls like Muska burn themselves from destitution. [Source-RAWA5]

I won't even bother linking to the now famous and recent case of the Afghan Christian convert who got out of the death penalty for converting because of international media attention so they ruled him as insane to look good. So basically we are backing a bunch of fundamentalist Northern Alliance warlords who have put in a strict Islamic theocracy. Now do not get me wrong Canada has back Islamic theocracies in the past. I.e. Saudi Arabia with death penalty for converts, gays, and drug users and the Sudan government but hey our oil company is there. But this is the first time that Canadian soldiers have fought and died to uphold the rule of an Islamic theocracy. But you say I can not believe that we could support a government that engages in human rights abuse.

Well we don’t give a shit about human rights:

During a meeting Friday in Ashgabat, President Niyazov invited Oman and Canada to participate in oil and gas projects in Turkmenistan. He identified construction of Trans-Afghan Pipeline (TAP) and modernization of Seyidi refinery as two likely projects where Omani and Canadian firms could take part.

... Turkmen president noted that Canadian companies had participated successfully in construction of LPG facilities in Turkmenistan. Considering the rising demand of LPG worldwide, Niyazov remarked that Canadian firms could increase their presence in this sector.

Jean Chrétien is advisor to the Bennett Jones, a Calgary-based law firm specializing in energy issues. He is also consul in another law firm Heenan Blaikie. In addition, Chrétien is international relations advisor to PetroKazakhstan Inc., an energy firm based in Calgary with major interests in Kazakhstan and Caspian. [Source]

So we deal with Turkmenistan eh?

"Headed by president-for-life Saparmurat Niazov [sic], Turkmenistan remains one of the most repressive and closed countries in the world. Regressive government policies in education, culture, and health care caused increasing concern in the international community. ... [T]he overall human rights situation in Turkmenistan remains dismal."-- Human Rights Watch, Jan. 18, 2006

This brings us to the unstated reason: OIL. At this point some people may be thing what a moonbat thing to say. Well let’s look at the facts. We do now that Unocal wanted to build a trans-Afghan pipeline in 1997 to bring Caspian oil out to ports in Pakistan to feed the hungry West. Now it gets a little fuzzy at this point but this man may or may not have been an employee at that time:

Oh Hamid Karzai you are such a Renaissance man. For a very good article dissecting whether or not he actually worked for them go here. Ok but lets get back to that Trans-Afghan Pipeline:

"TAP will be constructed alongside the highway running from Herat to Kandahar, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan.
... construction of the Turkmen part is supposed to start in 2006, but the overall
feasibility is questionable since the southern part of the Afghan section runs
through territory which continues to be under de facto Taliban control."

Hmmm... Kandahar sounds very familiar. So our troops happen to based in Kandahar and they are attacking Taliban in the area which needs to be secure so a pipeline can be built to ensure a profitable supply of Caspian oil. Not just American companies of course- Calgary based PetroKazakhstan Inc.

Ok so we are supporting a repressive Islamic theocracy while securing an area vital for an oil pipeline. You might say wow a pipeline would be great because the people of Afghanistan get to reap the benefits. But the Afghan government will get 8% of the royalties. 8% of that much actually gets filtered down remains to be seen. The other 92% will go to Western oil companies. I think that is bad. Some people may not but I think it’s a bad and we should not be doing it. So aside from this fundamentally flawed and wrong nature of the mission it is also conflicted and confused. Other reasons cited for being in Afghanistan are: humanitarian and stop the drug trade.
Humanitarian than. Our soldiers are NOT peacekeepers and they are NOT relief workers. Their job is to kill people. Don't believe me? Maybe this guy will convince you:

"We're not the public service of Canada," he said. "We're not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill
people."- Gen. Rick Hillier

What do humanitarian organizations think of troops in Afghanistan.

There are also direct and tragic consequences for those trying, against the odds, to make Afghanistan a better place to live that again resonate gravely with the situation in Iraq. Between February and March this year, 11 Afghan aid workers were murdered. Five of them worked for a Christian Aid partner
organization. Three surviving staff members said that their Taliban attackers had accused them of being US agents.

The politicization of aid is exemplified by the actions of US combat patrols in the south of the country, as reported in the US press. Lieutenant Reid Finn led one such patrol searching for Taliban insurgents. To do so, he used force against civilians – demanding information on his quarry with menaces, tying up suspects and raiding family homes. At the same time he used inducements in exchange for information – showering the same communities with ‘humanitarian’ gifts, such as blankets and food. Lt Finn was disarmingly blunt about his methods. He said: ‘The more they help us find the bad guys, the more good stuff they get.’141The Politics of Poverty

War and Humanitarian efforts do not mix very well. Afghans associated aid organizations with the American military that drag blind men out of there house and bombs wedding parties. Military get in the war of humanitarian work especially when money goes towards shooting people rather them ensuring reconstruction. Now how about that drug trade. Everybody recognizes it as a problem:

UN officials say fears are high that the country will degenerate into a "narco-state" and have voiced concerns of the strong links between drugs and
terrorism. President Karzai has said fighting drugs is his top priority for the next five years. [Source]

But wait the Afghan government wants the drug money:

Powerful drug lords are being encouraged by the Afghan government to invest their illegally earned profits in the war-shattered country, according to the governor of the top opium-growing region. [Source]

Well that was exciting wasn't it. but I'll wrap it up in a couple of sentences: We are not there for democracy and freedom, rather a repressive Islamic theocracy; the real reason is a need to secure the area for oil companies. Militaries kill people, and our presence hurt the humanitarian effort we are supposedly helping. And the Afghanistan government can’t decide whether it wants to stop the poppy trade or profit off it.

Random Links:

Top Ten Under-Reported Facts on Afghanistan

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

Defend Malalai Joya!

Factsheet on Afghanistan

Canadian Peace Alliance


Now, it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan brown,

For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles, and he weareth the Christian down;

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of the late deceased,

And the epitaph drear: 'A fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.'

-Runyard Kipling