[R-G] The blowback from Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

Recent two-part interview with Salutin:
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=74&jumival=241


The blowback from Afghanistan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081009.wcosalutin10/BNStory/politics/home

RICK SALUTIN
 From Friday's Globe and Mail


October 9, 2008 at 11:29 PM EDT

In the U.S. "debates," it was the bleakest moment for me so far when  
Barack Obama said he lamented the war in Iraq because it "weakened our  
capacity to project power around the world." Not because it was wrong  
to invade and occupy a distant country, or even because it was a  
failed war. But because it hampered U.S. ability to invade and occupy  
other places. In this, he agrees with John McCain, who says the United  
States has a "sacred duty to suffer hardship and risk danger to  
protect the values of our civilization and impart them to humanity" by  
military might. It is a core component of U.S. political culture. You  
don't get to run for president without it.

What is the problem with projecting power - aside from the slaughter,  
pillage and backlash it routinely generates? Well, the effects on the  
projectors themselves are often overlooked. Israel, for instance, has  
occupied Palestinian land for 41 years. An Israeli I knew, long ago,  
described serving in the West Bank and kicking a Palestinian kid,  
hard, with his army boot, because the kid held a prohibited  
Palestinian flag.

To his amazement, the kid stood there, so he kicked again. The shame  
of it never left him. He dreamed of returning to the village, finding  
the kid and apologizing.

Canada has been ambivalent about its role in military projections by  
great powers. We're never sure whether we belong with the empire or  
the natives. Our view of our soldiers as peacekeepers was an effort to  
straddle that dilemma. But in the Afghan occupation, we seem to have  
tilted: We now identify with the big guys, against the little scumbags.

It hasn't worked well. Insecurity there has increased. Sixty per cent  
want foreign troops out. Social progress has been minimal. The Taliban  
are resurgent. But what I really want to talk about are the "blowback"  
effects on us, at home, from our big military adventure. Let me take  
one example.

Stephen Harper's view for years has been that Canada's social programs  
are overblown and humiliatingly socialist. (You can Google it.) Yet  
they're awfully popular. How do you combat that as a minority prime  
minister? Try this: We can't afford it. Except we seem able to. Hmm,  
okay. Then lower the GST a couple of points, making less money  
available for the programs. Not bad. But what next?

Enter the Afghan mission. The parliamentary budget office reported  
yesterday on its total cost: $14-billion to $18-billion, maybe more:  
two to three times what the government claimed.

When asked about it, Stephen Harper held his palms up and said it was  
all "budgeted." As in: Sorry kids, but there's no money left at the  
end of the month for a trip to the zoo. He'd just announced a meagre  
$10-million for pulmonary diseases, much like yesterday's $5-million  
to lure Canadian doctors home. He calls these outlays modest. How  
about piddling? They are pathetic compared to what's required for  
national child care, pharmacare, the cities or aboriginals. Then add  
his plan to spend $490-billion on the military in the next 20 years,  
anticipating future Afghanistans.

It may not be why we went in. But military (over)spending is a superb  
way to tilt an economy away from social goals. It's the only big  
public spending neo-cons like Stephen Harper are comfy with. It's the  
U.S. model. They spend $700-billion a year on "defence," more than the  
rest of the world combined and the very amount of the big bailout -  
which itself is related to those projections into Iraq and Afghanistan  
and will severely hamper a President Obama from doing much  
domestically — but that's another several stories.

So there you have it: Canadian blowback from Afghanistan. A solution  
to Stephen Harper's dilemma: how to place beloved social programs out  
of reach. And all this even before the shrivelling effects of a global  
economic crunch. Imagine what the guy could do with a majority.