![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chickenfeetToday's Globe and Mail leads on an investigation of the received by prisoners handed over by the Canadian armed forces to the Afghan authorities. There has been concern for some time that the agreement Canada has with the Afghan government on this issue is weak but ministers and DND brass have repeatedly assured Canadians that the prisoners are treated properly. We now learn that 'properly' apparently includes floggings, electrocution and the rest of the torturer's dismal practices. I don't believe for one nanosecond that Canadian commanders and ministers were not aware that this was going on.
This, of course, raises the broader question of why on earth we have troops in Afghanistan. Ostensibly our troops are their to defend democracy and human rights but it is quite clear that in fact we are merely fighting battles for one murderous faction of mountain bandits against another. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Canada can do that will change the nature of Afghanistan. Why are we so incapable of learning what Britain in the 19th century and the USSR in the 20th century learned the hard way?
It's interesting how many of the commenters in the Globe and Mail are taking a pro torture line and how few are questioning what we are doing in the country.
This, of course, raises the broader question of why on earth we have troops in Afghanistan. Ostensibly our troops are their to defend democracy and human rights but it is quite clear that in fact we are merely fighting battles for one murderous faction of mountain bandits against another. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Canada can do that will change the nature of Afghanistan. Why are we so incapable of learning what Britain in the 19th century and the USSR in the 20th century learned the hard way?
It's interesting how many of the commenters in the Globe and Mail are taking a pro torture line and how few are questioning what we are doing in the country.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 03:57 pm (UTC)Well there is actually a long tradition of it but it's not something Canada has been stupid enough to do recently. One particularly obscure Victorian campaign was the stimulus for Edward lear's "Who, or why, or which, or what,
Is the Akhond of Swat?"
no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 05:35 pm (UTC)