[R-G] The Canadian Election and the War in Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 145 ... October 12, 2008
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The Canadian Election and the War in Afghanistan
Michael Skinner

Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, attempted to remove  
questions about Canada's role in Afghanistan from debate during the  
election campaign by announcing the combat role of the Canadian Forces  
will end, in 2011, if he is re-elected as Prime Minister.

But let's be clear about what the current combat role entails. Many  
Canadian political and military leaders claim the current  
counterinsurgency war will help bring stability, development,  
democracy, and the liberation of women to Afghanis, which will in turn  
make Canadians and the people of the world safer. However, Canada is  
participating in a counterinsurgency war using tactics prohibited by  
international law. Canada is also participating in a global American- 
led war with obscured geopolitical and economic objectives. Canadian  
political leaders have put us in this position to curry favour with  
the United States and benefit a small minority of Canadians –  
primarily investors in Canada's military industrial complex, the  
extractive industries, construction, transportation, communications,  
and other industries that can profit from war.

None of the Canadian political parties has produced a clearly focused  
foreign policy that most people – and not just people on the left – in  
Canada and Quebec can support in good conscience.

During the current election campaign, the leaders of all the political  
parties have avoided discussing the issues of the war in Afghanistan  
and its broad implications for Canadian foreign policy in any depth.  
The NDP, Green, and Bloc Québécois parties have at least produced  
platforms advocating withdrawal of Canadian combat troops from  
Afghanistan. The Conservatives and Liberals advocate holding the  
present destructive course until 2011.

All parties have avoided discussing Canada's combat role in  
Afghanistan in any depth for fear of alienating the small but powerful  
minority of war supporters. Most grassroots support for the war is  
generally well-intentioned, but, unfortunately, misinformed by the  
claims of altruistic intent made by the Government of Canada and  
Canadian Forces. Some grassroots support for the war, however,  
displays a disturbing trend towards an emerging North American jingoism.

Big business support for the war is profit-driven. The war is  
transferring billions of tax dollars to manufacturers and service  
providers in the military/security industries and many other related  
industries. The war is also opening Afghanistan to foreign investment  
and could potentially make all of Central Asia far more accessible for  
North American businesses.

Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have manoeuvred Canada  
into a subordinated position deeply integrated within America's global  
war-making organisation. Canada's imperial interests have become  
aligned with American ones. Yet, no leader of a major Canadian  
political party has asked why Canada is in this subordinated position  
as a key support of American imperialism, or laid out clear strategies  
to break from it.

The Financial Costs of
Canadian Militarism in Afghanistan
Neither the recent Conservative government nor the earlier Liberal  
government have been forthright about the priorities for the war in  
Afghanistan. Even Canada's Auditor-General, Kevin Page, has had a  
difficult time getting clear answers from state agencies regarding the  
costs of the war. Page estimates the cost could reach $14 to18 billion  
by 2011. The Rideau Institute estimates the costs could balloon to as  
much as $28 billion.

Canada pledged only $1 billion for development aid for the period  
2001-11, little of which, to date, appears to have been spent on  
substantive human development projects. Independent assessments of  
Canada's development role are difficult because the Canadian  
International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of Foreign  
Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) appear as secretive as the  
Department of National Defence about how they spend their budgets in  
Afghanistan.

The gross difference between the Canadian war and development budgets  
is reflected in the gross difference in scale between actual  
destruction and reconstruction on the ground in Afghanistan.

It is important to keep in mind that the financial costs of the war  
borne by most taxpayers are a boom to the corporations profiting from  
war. Politicians consciously decide to prioritise this economic  
transfer to war-profiteering corporations over other potential  
spending in social welfare, environmental protection, and sustainable  
economic development.

Continue reading:
www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet145.html#continue

Michael Skinner is at the Department of Political Science at York  
University and is a member of CUPW and CUPE.