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I am glad Canada is getting out of Afghanistan
By Marcel Oostendarp, Ottawa Citizen June 3, 2011
Read more: I am glad Canada is getting out of Afghanistan
Re: It's not mission accomplished, June 1.
Canada joins the list of nations leaving Afghanistan in defeat. For some reason, NATO and America have attacked the Pashtuns and waged a decade-long struggle to pacify the region. This is a dubious proposition given that the Pashtuns fought off Alexander the Great, the British and the Russians. In the case of the Russians, America provided the weapons. Now Pakistan is providing the weapons.
The Taliban/Pashtuns will take power again from the puppet government the West installed when the West leaves. A 10-year-long war, for what? If NATO and the Americans presume to have won, why are we now negotiating with the Taliban? Winning armies do not negotiate.
The Pashtuns have been there for more than 2,000 years and want to be left alone, free from other nations trying to impose their values on them. With the continual drone attacks, innocent lives snuffed out by bombs and rockets and people displaced, it is no wonder that we are seen as complicit in the attack upon this group of people.
I am glad Canada is getting out. We should never have gone to war with a people who did us no wrong and neither attacked us or threatened us. Other powerful individuals have made that decision for us, not Canadians. Enough of empire building and rosy story telling where there is none.
MARCEL OOSTENDARP, Renfrew
By Marcel Oostendarp, Ottawa Citizen June 3, 2011
Read more: I am glad Canada is getting out of Afghanistan
Re: It's not mission accomplished, June 1.
Canada joins the list of nations leaving Afghanistan in defeat. For some reason, NATO and America have attacked the Pashtuns and waged a decade-long struggle to pacify the region. This is a dubious proposition given that the Pashtuns fought off Alexander the Great, the British and the Russians. In the case of the Russians, America provided the weapons. Now Pakistan is providing the weapons.
The Taliban/Pashtuns will take power again from the puppet government the West installed when the West leaves. A 10-year-long war, for what? If NATO and the Americans presume to have won, why are we now negotiating with the Taliban? Winning armies do not negotiate.
The Pashtuns have been there for more than 2,000 years and want to be left alone, free from other nations trying to impose their values on them. With the continual drone attacks, innocent lives snuffed out by bombs and rockets and people displaced, it is no wonder that we are seen as complicit in the attack upon this group of people.
I am glad Canada is getting out. We should never have gone to war with a people who did us no wrong and neither attacked us or threatened us. Other powerful individuals have made that decision for us, not Canadians. Enough of empire building and rosy story telling where there is none.
MARCEL OOSTENDARP, Renfrew
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