[R-G] Debate on Afghanistan needed, [McQuaig] says

[Anthony Fenton]

  Debate on Afghanistan needed, writer says; Citizens pressured to  
support troops: author
http://www.thewhig.com/PrintArticle.aspx?e=993596

Toronto writer Linda McQuaig isn't into bumper stickers, but even if  
she was, she wouldn't put "Support Our Troops" on her car.

It's not that the author of a new book criticizing Canada's assistance  
to U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan doesn't care about Canadian  
soldiers and their families.

The yellow ribbons urge Canadians to support their soldiers, not the  
Afghanistan occupation, but McQuaig worries the real message they are  
sending is to support the war.

"In fact, the people promoting them are often supporting the  
Afghanistan mission and hoping to make that confusion in the public's  
mind," she said in an interview following a meeting yesterday with the  
Whig-Standard's editorial board.

"I think that confusion has been deliberately created by some people  
who want to get more support for the mission than is out there."

McQuaig, author of Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the U.S.  
Empire, spoke at a free public forum in Sydenham Street United Church  
on Thursday night with fellow author Cathy Crowe. The event was  
sponsored by a dozen local community and Christian groups.

Before heading home to Toronto yesterday, McQuaig visited the Whig to  
speak to the editorial board about a number of issues, including the  
need for Canadians to start having more debates about Canada's  
occupation of Afghanistan and the nation's transition from a globally  
respected peacekeeper to the U.S.'s war-mongering assistant.

She also talked about the pressure placed on Canadians to demonstrate  
support for their troops and how refusing to do so can be seen as  
unpatriotic.

"This is a debate we've got to have in this country and one of the  
most serious things going on is that we're not having this debate,"  
she said. "Whenever you try to have it, there are certain people who  
try to shut you down and say you should simply support your troops."  
Canada's Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier has suggested anyone  
who questions Canada's role in Afghanistan undermines the confidence  
and morale of troops.

"That to me is absolutely absurd," McQuaig said. "If anything, what  
they are doing ultimately, presumably, is about promoting democracy  
and responsibility for our actions."

Journalists and the Canadian public are not debating Canada's role in  
Afghanistan as they should, she said.

With the lives of so many Canadian soldiers and Canada's international  
role and reputation at stake, it's essential that Canadians take a  
hard look at what their military is doing in Afghanistan and the  
subservient military role this country is playing to the U.S.  
military, McQuaig said.

"The idea that you don't debate these things and that you shut up and  
go along with whatever your government decides, that's a dangerous,  
dangerous thing to fall into," she said.

In Holding the Bully's Coat, McQuaig argues that Canada must reject  
the role of "adjunct to the U.S. Empire," which broke international  
law to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and must find the courage to find  
its own way.

Continuing to play servant to the "U.S. bully" is hurting Canada's  
international credibility and its ability to act as an effective  
peacekeeper, she said.

"The [political] right in Canada loves to portray us as kind of a  
nothing country in the world, a two-bit has-been," she said. "It's not  
true at all. We actually reached our pinnacle of influence in the  
world in the Cold War years, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s."

McQuaig doesn't expect Canada's occupation of Afghanistan to end  
before 2011, the earliest Parliament has said Canadian Forces can come  
home.

"I don't think it's going to make one bit of difference not having  
Hillier there," she said. "Governments change, but it's going to be  
very difficult for [Liberal leader Stephane] Dion to take a different  
position."

farmstrong at thewhig.com