[R-G] Afghanistan: Why CanadaShould Withdraw Its Troops

[Anthony Fenton]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 90 .... March 14, 2008
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This Thursday the House of Commons passed a Confidence Motion put  
forward by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen  
Harper to extend the Canadian mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan to  
December 2011 past the current commitment to 2009. With the support of  
the Liberal Party (breaking their previous position of a call for a  
troop withdrawal in 2009) the motion passed by a majority vote of 198  
to 77, with the Bloc Québécois and the NDP dissenting. The motion  
built on the earlier Manley Report (Bullet No. 87) which called for a  
similar time commitment of Canadian troops, an increased effort at  
reconstruction and training of Afghan troops, a demand that NATO  
allies provide an additional 1000 troops into southern Afghanistan,  
and left open further Canadian commitments (including troops) to  
Afghanistan as a whole past 2011.

The increased troop levels are so ludicrously low, and the call for  
training and reconstruction so vacuous, that it is plain that both the  
Manley Report and the Confidence Motion were simply a means to build a  
united political consensus among the Canadian ruling classes, the  
parties of business and Canadian Generals, to lock Canada into the  
NATO and U.S. led war effort. It is also a poorly disguised effort to  
‘take the war out of politics.’ A consistent majority of Canadians  
remain opposed to this hopeless and imperialist war. In the eyes of  
the bankrupt Canadian ruling classes, the last thing that should be  
submitted to democracy is war commitments. Nonetheless, tens of  
thousands will be out in the streets protesting on March 15 as part of  
the World Against War mobilizations across the world and in Canada  
(led by theCanadian Peace Alliance). The Bullet here presents the  
important intervention by Michael Skinner and the Afghanistan Canada  
Research Group on why Canada should withdraw its troops now.

Afghanistan: Why CanadaShould Withdraw Its TroopsMichael Skinner
The Afghanistan Canada Research Group was formed in 2006 by a group of  
York University graduate students concerned with the Canadian Mission  
in Afghanistan. The focus of our work over the past two years was to  
document Afghan opinions of the international intervention in  
Afghanistan.

In June and July of 2007, I spent five weeks travelling in Afghanistan  
with another researcher Hamayon Rastgar. Based out of Kabul, we  
travelled to Bamiyan and Yawkawlang in the central region of  
Afghanistan, north into Parwan province, and as far south as the city  
of Ghazni. During Hamayon’s three month visit, he travelled further  
north to Mazar-e-Sharif and Konduz and as far south as Kandahar City.

The purpose of our visit was to ask ordinary Afghans – particularly  
workers and students who do not have a voice in either the  
international or Afghan media – what they think about the  
international military intervention in their homeland.

We set up a video camera on two university campuses in Kabul and  
Bamiyan, at the teachers’ college in Kabul, on street corners, in  
markets and poor neighbourhoods in the communities we visited. We  
invited Afghans to tell us what they think of the international  
military intervention.

We cannot claim our research in Afghanistan is scientifically  
conclusive; it was in fact anecdotal and relied on the self-selection  
of respondents who volunteered to appear on camera. We also had a  
difficult time getting women to speak – a situation symptomatic of  
deeper problems experienced by women, some of which I will describe  
below.

Despite these methodological limitations, the high number of  
grievances Afghans expressed in opposition to the international  
intervention, we recorded, suggests there may be far less support for  
the military mission than some polls suggest. The quantitative  
analyses of recent polls conducted in Afghanistan fail to capture the  
complexly nuanced analyses of responses we heard from Afghans.

Many Afghans told us they consider the current military mission the  
same way as they consider previous invasions by British and Soviet  
military forces. We were reminded the invading forces in both those  
cases claimed to represent the best interests of Afghans, but both  
occupations proved to serve the geopolitical interests of these  
powerful states at the expense of most Afghans.

Many Afghans told us they consider our occupation of their country  
colonialism or imperialism.

Numerous Afghans told us variations of the phrase: “If you come as a  
guest we will treat you with the greatest hospitality, but if you come  
as an invader we will resist and ultimately overcome your force.”

Afghans expressed to us numerous grievances regarding the  
international intervention: 1) the international military forces are  
causing high numbers of civilian casualties, displacing populations,  
arbitrarily arresting and detaining people, and generally humiliating  
Afghans; 2) the international intervention has reconstituted the  
theocratic regime first instituted by force with American support, in  
1992, and has rewarded warlords who are accused of war crimes; 3) the  
international community has not reconstructed the essentials of public  
infrastructure in any systematic way; and 4) promises of liberating  
women are perceived as not only ineffectual, but intentionally  
deceptive.

Many Afghans also indicated a number of geopolitical and economic  
reasons why they believe Canada and the other international forces  
continue to occupy their country.

Complete Bullet:

www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet090.html




March 15, 2008
The World Says No to War
Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan
Toronto, ON

WORLD AGAINST WAR
Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan

Saturday, March 15

1:00pm - OPENING RALLY - Queen's Park
Co-sponsored by the Housing Not War Campaign

1:30pm - PEACE MARCH - to Trinity-St. Paul's Church

2:30pm - INDOOR RALLY - 427 Bloor Street West
Featuring speakers, spoken word and hip hop, live webcast of Winter  
Soldier testimony from Washington, DC, and testimony of US war  
resisters in Canada.

For more information please see www.nowar.ca

More listings of events across Canada – Canadian Peace Alliance website.

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