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Friday, March 14, 2008
In Kandahar until 2011
In a rare show of solidarity (or a desire on the part of an effectively leaderless opposition party to avoid an election), the Liberals and Tories managed to outmuscle the rest of the House voting 198 - 77 in favour of extending the mission in Afghanistan until 2011.
This, in spite of the clever chant by protestors -- "End it, Don't Extend it" -- as well as fierce NDP opposition to continuing the mission in Afghanistan.
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on March 14, 2008 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
This war is worth fighting because the Canadian government agreed to fight it. It may or may not be worth fighting for other reasons. Ultimately in a democracy, the people are responsible and bear the results of their electoral decisions. In a dictatorship, the people do what they are told. As another example, in Gaza, the people are responsible for the actions of those whom they elect.
Posted by: dewp | 14-Mar-08 1:05:04 AM
I guess John McCain would call this timeline "terms of surrender."
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 14-Mar-08 1:23:04 AM
Frankly, I think that the Tories blew a real chance to redefine themselves and the country here. We're a country of thirty million people - and a wealthy one. We ought to have committed to increasing the size and strength of our mission over there, and then used that commitment to assert a new aggressive Canadian nationalism.
As I've said elsewhere, the biggest problem that the Conservatives have is that the Liberals, especially through their monopoly on the education system, have created this image that Canadianism and liberalism are intrinsically linked - the one way to end that is to create an alternative narrative for the Conservatives, which defines Canada as a tough, sensible, and dependable Western nation - linking our actions today to a century-long history of courage and resolve, with the years of Trudeau and those that followed written off as an abberration.
Posted by: Adam Yoshida | 14-Mar-08 1:32:18 AM
I'm so happy Canadian children will have the opportunity I did and grow up without a father so our country can say we were there and we protected drug dealers and torturers of their fellow citizens. What child wouldn't be proud to say that. I'm proud to say my daddy died making Korea the peaceful happy united place it is today. Who really needs a father anyway?
Posted by: Nite Owl | 14-Mar-08 4:51:23 AM
"We ought to have committed to increasing the size and strength of our mission over there, and then used that commitment to assert a new aggressive Canadian nationalism"
Agressive Canadian Nationalism.
Sounds a bit like the 1930's Agressive German Nationalism.
And join in with the US Government in their "undeclared" war of Imperialism? And as an added benefit we can drain the population of its wealth and destroy our currency as well. Ane hey! its only a few dead dad's and brothers and sisters...our politicians can afford that right? Sounds like a very sensible thing to do...now everybody goose step!
The Liberals and Conservatives aren't Liberal OR Conservative anymore and neither are worth your vote. But then again the NDP are not an alternative so what to do?
Posted by: JC | 14-Mar-08 6:59:02 AM
We aren't over there to "save" Afghanistan. We're there to save ourselves. Canada was in real danger of losing its identity. This mission will redefine us just like the Falklands brought Britain back from the Precipice.
We're losing fewer people than we lose in farming accidents. The James Bay project was statistically more dangerous than the Kandahar mission.
Besides, it's a volunteer army. Back in the 90's I met a warrant officer with 25 years service who was asked to go to Bosnia. He chose to take retirement, and a lot of people thought he did the right thing. All those years of service and then gets stuck going to Bosnia! I had a different take on his situation. All those years of drawing a government cheque to sit around looking smug, and when you finally get "asked" to earn your keep, you quit.
Posted by: dp | 14-Mar-08 9:28:54 AM
Extending the commitment before finding out what the new U.S. President is going to do with Afghanistan is political folly.
Mr. Harper is going to look pretty stupid if the Americans pull out by the end of 2009.
Posted by: Speller | 14-Mar-08 9:59:01 AM
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