Canadians in Afghanistan
April 03, 2009 1:28 PM
To the Editor,
It is with some trepidation that I write this letter inasmuch as it seems that anyone who questions Canada's military presence in Afghanistan is accused of not supporting our troops in this war - that appears to have no end in sight - while the number of our young men (and women) being killed or injured is increasing.
First of all, let us be plain that the reason Canadian soldiers are in this theatre of war is because they volunteered service in the military.
They did not join because they wanted to kill people. But now our government has required them to do just that.
However, by the time our military arrived on the scene, we already had been told that the enemy was al-Qaeda and the "Taliban" who were responsible for 9/11.
Originally the Taliban were recruited and formed with the help of the CIA who were anxious to defeat the Russian army after the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban, at that time, consisted mostly of mujahidin war lords. Seven of these people are now members of Hamid Karzie's Afghan government. Five of these are known warlords who have been cited for human rights abuses and killings, and a sixth has been accused by the UN for illegal land grabs. All the while, the majority of Afghan people live in terror and poverty.
A British commander stated that " the fight here isn't really about religion. It's about money".
And that means that it is about control by diverse interests of the vast reserves of oil in the Middle East region. Although we Canadians abhor the fundamentalist extremist cultural practices of the Taliban, these wars are now into the eighth year of destruction, displacement, injury and death of millions of people in the region. Add to that the sacrifice of the lives of over 4000 American soldiers, and over 100 Canadians There are thousands more on both sides of this struggle who have been physically and mentally injured for life.
It would appear that the US military, with the help of their NATO allies, obviously have the greatest number of efficient, technological superior weapons of war on this planet.
But it also would appear that those who foster war are the most uncivilized species presently living on this obscure planet Earth.
Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1BO