NATO Bred Mistrust In Afghanistan
Two leading Canadian military historians, Jack Granatstein and David Bercuson, have just conducted a review of the “Lessons Learned” in Afghanistan for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute and they conclude “Canada should think long and hard” before entering into any coalition similar to NATO’s operations in Afghanistan.“We cannot escape the conclusion that NATO has not functioned well, either politically or militarily, in Afghanistan,” their report says.
Hi, Tony. Both Granatstein and Bercuson are big military supporters, to the extent that the military can do no wrong in their eyes, no matter what they do. Canada did go in "unprepared" just because there was really nothing to support the claim that Canada's "interests" were threatened or their security endangered by Afghanistan. Diehard military boosters were going on about the fact that they were deployed in "forest camo", green uniforms, rather than "desert camo". But heck, last time I looked, Canada was pitifully short of desert.
ReplyDeleteI think that Canada got stuck in Kandahar because our then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien resisted the need to go at all and finally yielded to the pressure from the U.S., probably accompanied by threats of obstructing trade between the two countries. When Canada finally gave way, all the "good" spots were taken and Canada didn't insist on the same conditions as other NATO countries did. The then-head of the Canadian armed forces, Rick Hillier, wanted a fighting war. It looked better on the resumé, I guess. He's now retired on a fat pension. The 157 dead and the unknown number of injured and disabled soldiers (the Harper government won't release the numbers or extent of injuries) either didn't live to retire or will probably live in pain and distress for the rest of their lives.
NATO isn't functioning well anywhere. It's an organization desperately looking for a reason to exist and will go anywhere and do anything to justify itself. The slaughter and destruction in Libya is just the latest.
The problem with these two guys is that they never questioned whether Canada - or anyone else - should have been there at all. And now they herald the announcement that Canadians have left Afghanistan, which they haven't really. Nearly one thousand "trainers" (sorry about all the scare quotes) will remain for years, as well as their support staff, mercenaries and war contractors, I suppose.
And since there aren't any more Canadians there (even though there are) the whole thing has almost disappeared from Canadian newspapers.
Now they're cheering about NATO's successful air war in Libya, headed by another retiring Canadian general, Bouchard.
Where next, I wonder?
A pretty comprehensive take, Filo. Interesting about the Canadian background. I think I have posed the question to you in the past - what has happened to Canada in the last 25 years? The country and people I first visited in the early 80s would have had no truck with the NATO madness and would have jeered from the sidelines. Where next for NATO? Unfortunately there's no shortage of opportunities for them to drag out their miserable existence.
ReplyDelete