WARNOCK: Creating a Failed State: The US & Canada in A

[Oscar]

Please join us for an open discussion of the role of Canada in the U.S./NATO counter insurgency war in Afghanistan. This will take place in the context of the launch of:

Creating a Failed State: The U.S. & Canada in Afghanistan

by John W. Warnock
Fernwood Publishing Company, May 2008.

Wednesday, June 25, The Club (The Exchange), 2431 8th Avenue, Regina, 7 pm
Hosted by Rock the Boat Books. (306) 525-2949

Friday, June 27, The Loft, Lydia’s Pub, 650 Broadway, Saskatoon, 7 pm
Hosted by Turning the Tide Books. (306) 955-3070

By the end of 2001, the United States and its local allies, the Northern Alliance, had chased the hated Taliban government out of Afghanistan. A process had begun to create a new constitution and elect a new government, and the United Nations had been asked to lead a broad coalition starting reconstruction and development. Canada made major commitments to this project. But the Taliban are back and are expanding a war of insurgence against the Karzai government and its NATO supporters. As the conflict spreads, it appears that there is no end in sight.

As John Warnock explains, this situation is only understandable within a broad geopolitical framework. Under the guise of intending to capture Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan continued as a focus of U.S. imperial policy, its desire to dominate the world through its massive military force and to control the oil and gas resources so vital to its economy. Shamefully, but not surprisingly, successive Canadian governments have participated in this American project, which began in Afghanistan in 1979. The Afghan people have been the victims of this long geopolitical war. It is time for the Canadian government to change direction and support a process to bring peace and democracy to Afghanistan.


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Book Contents: Humanitarian Intervention: Guns v. Spears * Afghanistan as a Failed State? * Modernization and Modernity * The United States and the Burden of Empire * 9/11, al Qaeda and the War on Terrorism * B-52 Democracy * The Politics of Women’s Rights * Canada’s Role in Afghanistan * What Are the Alternatives?

[Oscar]

This statement is not a review of John Warnock's excellent book. It is an expression of the disgust and anger at the way Canada is behaving in the world today. Warnock's book, in particular the litany of death in the first chapter, was the catalyst. I urge you to read the book and get a little angry yourself. Maybe we can change the world! - John Keen C/R S/SK June 2008

The Ultimate Spear

In John Warnock’s book about Afghanistan …" Creating a Failed State”…he paints a portrait of our society that is covered with warts. Information the public in involved countries needed to make an informed decision about going to war was, and is, being denied the public. That information can be found here. Our Governments, particularly in Canada and the USA, have lied, and worse. Though we live in what we call a democracy, they have ignored the wishes of the majority of their populations. In carrying out murderous attacks on nearly defenseless populations, the so-called developed countries have shown their greatest development lies in the art of “murder most foul”.

In some twisted way, the desire for greater command of resources has become the justification for killing those who have what we want.

Chapter One is titled …"Guns v Spears"…with the implication that spears are less sophisticated. The third sentence of that chapter carries a ghastly message. That sentence describes the launch of our spear. The B2 Stealth Bomber is the most advanced spear ever created. What a perversion of engineering technology. The most powerful and (until recently) the richest, society in the world has forged a weapon that enables those who ordered its creation to kill from a distance that grants impunity. With this instrument we can reach from middle America to Afghanistan and beyond.

Almost as remarkable as the plane itself is its crew. Only two people are needed. Probably both are male. They come from middle to upper middle class backgrounds. Married, mid-thirties, better than average educations and thoroughly indoctrinated. It is likely both have children that they leave behind when they climb into their fabulous spear to go and kill other people’s children. They are insulated from the horror of what they are doing by the belief that what they are doing is right and must be done. And by the fact that human fragments are not visible from 50,000 feet. But a day will come when that certainty crumbles. And the automatic they kept as a souvenir will fulfill its function.

Until then they will act as accessories to their killing machine. What will they do during the hours between leaving Missouri and returning? Their magnificent spear is largely self-sufficient. Will they play video games? They could talk for a while. Sleep, for a while. Or gaze at a cloudscape illuminated by a silver moon. Anything but think of the family they left behind so they could go and kill other families.

Since they will arrive unannounced and (if at night) invisible to both radar and human eyes they can carry out their murders and leave unscathed. So the only retribution will be the suicides caused by the demons of conscience. And it will be visited upon (as custom decrees) the less responsible.

And while always rare in the halls of power, conscience is now vanishingly rare. As businesses grow and merge they wield greater and greater power Decency can be an impediment to promotion and to ultimate control. And as psychopaths and sociopaths gain control in finance, manufacturing, and communications, they seek out their counterparts in Government. It could be called fascism.

I guess that points to an obvious solution. We must find and elect decent people. And it is that simple. A close look at voting patterns indicates only about 22 out of every 100 eligible voters, voted for bad guys. The trouble of course, is trying to figure out who the bad guys are. There must be a lot of them in disguise. Otherwise the large majority of supposed good guys in our Parliament would have united to end our involvement in these atrocities. The members who profess to not enjoy killing could have united to end our share of the atrocities. By putting aside petty differences they could have defeated the current government and formed a temporary alliance that would have reduced the present involvement with the unsavory group to the south.

The reward would be a better world. The resources now wasted killing each other could create a fair imitation of Paradise.

John Keen C/R SS
Jkeen@sasktel.net
www.dnpp.ca