I’m not much of a fan of the National Post as I find many of its writers a lot more right leaning (I’m trying to be kind) than I have tolerance for. However, as intolerant as I am of these writers, I do occasionally  read their drivel if for nothing else to make sure I really am still intolerant of them.

So, rather than subject myself to actually reading the National Post, I follow them on Twitter and scan the headlines they tweet for items of interest. One caught my attention today “Louise Arbour speaks out on the world’s worst country — Canada“, a piece written by Kelly McParland.

I have a lot of respect for Mme Arbour having read about her actions in Bosnia and the Hague. I admired her gutsy stands, especially in bringing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic in the face of some of the NATO countries demonstrating their lack of will in bringing him to justice. I admired that she is not only a gutsy woman in an often man’s world but a gutsy Canadian woman.

McParland on the other hand, appears to be very good at the type of armchair journalism which can be pretty safe to engage in. You know, the kind of writing that bloggers, like me, do from the comfort of our homes. Except he gets paid and should be writing to a higher standard.

What McParland was slamming Arbour over was her candid remarks made to Olivia Ward in her piece today in the Toronto Star; “Louise Arbour can finally talk about world’s worst regimes“. During the interview Arbour shared that she can now speak her mind in her current position as President and CEO of the International Crisis Group.

What set McParland off is this:

“Is Canada punching below its weight?” she says. “Is it punching at all?”

Ottawa, Arbour argues, is “largely absent on the international scene. It’s very difficult to capture any kind of message, position or form of engagement these days.”

And she adds, “when I was prosecutor in 1996, it mattered what Canada thought. On issues of justice and ethics, it mattered what the Canadian position was. There was a sense that you would get an honest, well-thought-out approach. Not just a raw pursuit of ideological or national interest.”

I went over and read the piece myself. It didn’t take me a degree in journalism to take a reasonable guess that Olivia Ward was engaged in an interview with Louise Arbour and since she had limited space for her piece, she focused on Arbour’s remarks that were relevant to Canadians. It is after all, a Canadian newspaper and Canadian audience. You can pick up pretty easily that there were other countries discussed.

Just to make sure my impressions weren’t just assumptions on my part I shot an email off to Ward. Apparently McParland didn’t think about that simple little stop, but then it would have robbed him of his rant material. She responded in short order and yes, my assumptions were correct.

Arbour is correct in her comments. It is very difficult to know where Canada stands on much of anything and when you do figure out a stand it drips with partisan ideology. Canada at one time had a nuanced approach to the conflicts in the Middle East.

We didn’t trumpet Israel as taking a “measured response” when they bombed the Gaza. We wouldn’t have stayed silent over their use of phosphorus weapons on a civilian population, like we have recently. We wouldn’t have cut off funding to an aid group like KAIROS for having the temerity to criticise the actions of Israel.

When Canada took a stand, it meant something more than pandering to the right wing Christian Evangelical interests in the political party of government.

These days, Harper is quick to strut on the world stage and claim Canada is no longer a ‘soft power’, but with our military refitting and boots on the ground in places like Afghanistan and Haiti that we can prove ourselves as ‘hard power’ through our capabilities.

One of his most recent chest thumpings took place in Haiti in February. I’ll give him his due, Canada reacted swiftly to the devastating earthquake there on February 12th. Putting 2000 Canadian troops on the ground is swift order should have made most Canadians puff a bit with pride. Course, less noticed was that within a couple of months, those troops were just as quickly pulled out.

Having never heard of ICG organization, I looked it up and spent some time exploring their site. Too bad McParland didn’t take some time to do the same. It places Arbour’s comments in even more perspective. She isn’t speaking just from past experiences, she’s speaking from today’s experiences.

This 15 year old non-profit group is independent and non-governmental. They focus on trying to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts like Afghanistan amongst about 60 hot spots in the world. A scan down the list of their board members shows an international cast of all stars who have had up close experience in hot spots. They are not armchair quarterbacks.

The reports they have prepared and delivered on their research in these areas are available for reading on the website. I took a read down through their most recent report on Afghanistan and from their linked to another paper and was scanning down through that when I came across this:

Kabul recently surreptitiously resurrected an amnesty law that grants immunity to the warlords who currently rule the country and to the brutal extremists who seek to supplant them. The law may well apply to Baradar if he agreed to join the reconciliation process. This controversial “National Reconciliation, General Amnesty and National Stability Law” had languished in legal limbo since first appearing three years ago, until it was put on the books late last year in an apparent election-related deal with several of Karzai’s key supporters. The law grants blanket amnesty to the perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities, forcing victims to negotiate their claims through the virtually defunct Afghan justice system.

Canada, the US and other allies appear to have placed a cone of silence over this action. Thankfully the International Criminal Court, to which Afghanistan signed on to in 2005 and is thus subject to, is considering launching a formal investigation into war crimes there in the last seven years. With some of the Taliban leadership in custody in Pakistan, the ICC appears to be the mostly likely place to bring them to justice.

So, why exactly is ‘hard power’ Harper not standing up and breaking the silence on the Karzai government’s corruption and subterfuge? Why is he not pressing the other allies to step up and demand better when our country’s blood and treasure has gone into trying to bring stability to this country?

If McParland wants to have a good rant, he might want to look where Arbour is coming from and what is backing her up. He’d have enough material to keep his pay cheque coming for several months.

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I have been watching this situation with Omar Khadr for some time now, not really sure where I land on what should happen with him. The more information that comes out about him, the more I find myself troubled on several levels with his case. If you don’t know who Omar Khadr is, he is a Canadian born Muslim captured in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 and held at Quantamano Bay. He is the only westerner still in captivity there and the youngest, being just 15 at the time he was captured. To read more detail about Khadr, have a look here.

My short opinion on him, is that he’s a Canadian citizen and a child at the time of his capture. He should have been brought home and should still be brought home. To steadfastly refuse to do so in the face of unchallenged evidence that he’s been subject to physical and mental abuse and the process by which he is about to be tried is being weighted more by politics than any attempt at justice is to deny a Canadian his birthright.

It has not been proven that Khadr threw the grenade that killed Speers, who was trained as a medic but was engaged in the fire fight. He wasn’t with the troops as a medic at the time of his death. There has been allegations that reports filed after the battle indicated that the fighter who threw the grenade was killed and that the writer of the report was ordered to change the wording from ‘killed’ to ‘engaged’ which doesn’t define the final status of the person throwing the grenade.

There has also been suggestions that Speers was killed by an American grenade tossed into the compound during the fire fight. One witness report that the defense had to fight for stated that Khadr was found on his knees with his back to the action taking place when the witness entered the compound and that he was shot in the back.

I rather doubt the truth will be known. In the chaos and confusion of a fire fight, even those present may not know for sure what happened, including Khadr.

I have been rather ambivalent about Khadr’s plight and considering his young age, I maybe should not be so. I find the whole process through which he’s been held and the treatment of him by both his American captors and Canadian officials disturbing.

How long are we willing to sit back and observe as fellow Canadians are subjected to violations of Canadian and International law? Will we wait too long and gradually those treatments that are being visited upon people believed to be part of the “enemy” gradually ingrained into our system until Canadians of any walk of life can be subjected to this treatment merely because the government deems them to be a ‘threat’?

When we start to surrender rights and freedoms out of fear of ‘them’ we open the door to governments to infringe even further. Americans are beginning to see this as some of the horror and fear of 9/11 starts to draw back into memory and they start to take stock of how their government has changed the rules of ‘justice’ to fit what the result is they wish to attain.

This is rather evident when you review the makeup of the ‘court’ that is prosecuting Khadr. When men of conscience have questioned the process and the rightness of it, they have been replaced and/or officially silenced. When a country like the USA or Canada starts down a path like that, it sends out signals to countries less inclined to a strict rule of law and justice. Signals that are not good.

There is no clean, black and white solution to this issue. Should Khadr be brought home to face Canadian justice? As this drags on and I see the lack of justice he’s had to this point, I’m leaning more and more towards, yes he should. If he will be tried without political interference here.

The bigger issue is, this young man has been physically and mentally damaged. Raised and indoctrinated into a family, religious and ideological culture that was hostile to the west, in particular to the Americans. Since his capture, I don’t believe he has had any treatment that would induce him to forsake that upbringing. No matter where he ends up, the biggest issue is going to be can he be reached? Can he be salvaged and become a functioning member of society?

That waits to be seen. This young man and those like him are the West’s problem that must find resolution if peace is ever to have a hope.

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In a valiant effort to divert blame from himself or his cronies, Pakistan President Musharraf has come up with a theory for who to blame for the death of Benazir Bhutto…. it was her fault.

In an interview on the American TV show 60 Minutes Musharraf blamed Bhutto for her death because she choose to see and be seen amongst the people she was asking to support her run for Prime Minister.

The government has blamed a  warlord with ties to Al Qaeda for arranging her assassination. Many of Bhuttos supporters blame Musharraf and his officials for at minimum not providing sufficient security and at worse, actually conspiring to kill her.

BillW at Crooks and Liars reports on the interview with Sara Logan and provides links to either listen to or download the segment.

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Visit Out of the Shadows - My commentary on the world as I see it

Visit Out of the Shadows - My commentary on the world as I see it

One of the problems with have a strong level of confidence of who you are is that instead of carrying that awareness with humility there can be a tendency to want to carry a big stick to make sure that no one dares to challenge your confidence. So it has been with the US for a long time. They have consistently blundered into situations with an attitude of ‘we are the superpower and we will be obeyed’ which only serves to seriously blur the line between being confident and being arrogant bullies.

Once that line is blurred into oblivion, the people being subjected to the arrogance and bullying will resist no matter how much the bully thinks they are there for the people’s own protection. Thus is how it goes in Iraq and likely would be in Afghanistan if not for the moderating presence of NATO. An article in today’s Toronto Star talks about how the US military are starting to realize that branding themselves as a “force” rather than “we’re here to help” is contributing to the failure of the occupation in Iraq.

The US could turn that mistake around but it will have to come with a lot of humility and ratcheting down of national, corporate and individual attitudes. There in lies the problem, the prevailing American attitude is not new to this generation, it is one that has inhabited successive generations.

They are not  alone with having operated in an arrogant, bullying manner simply because they could. The ruling class in the days of the British Empire were no less arrogant, bullying and condescending in how they viewed those who were not them. It is rather ironic that it was that same attitude that so shaped the determination of the founding fathers of the USA.

There is nothing wrong with national pride, in fact it is essential. There is nothing wrong with national confidence, that too is essential. What is wrong is when that pride and confidence is used as a club and in a self-serving manner.

Just because you have 100,000 troops to occupy a country with doesn’t mean you need to be poised like the hammer of Thor. Just because you have rich, politically connected companies willing to put down roots in the country you are occupying doesn’t mean you allow them economic access to that country unless you intend to conquer that country totally.

The Iraqi people had every right to expect that if they had been liberated from Saddam that they would be helped to become self-sustaining not raped, pillaged and plundered and then told they need to stand on their own two feet.  It is more than a little difficult to stand on your own two feet when your resources are owned by your ‘liberators’.

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The famous Royal 22nd Regiment based in Valcartier, Quebec are undergoing final training and preparations for deployment to Afghanistan this summer for the next rotation of Canadian troops. While the regiment is prepared and looking forward to taking a turn on the mission which has seen the first Canadian combat deaths in over 50 years, the political mills are abuzz.

Quebec is the province where support for the mission has been the lowest in the country. Some believe that once the Van Doos are deployed if they take casualties there will be hell to pay politically at home. Quebec is not a province that historically has been known for its sense of duty and service to the rest of the country.

While the Quebec based regiments are not near as plentiful as those from the other provinces, those that have been raised have served proudly and bravely alongside other Canadians. When casualties occur, as it appears is likely, it will truly do those men and women in uniform a terrible disservice if the province fails to rally behind their regiment, with honour and support for the completion of their deployment.
There will be a contingent of Quebec media travelling with the Van Doos when they are deployed and that, on the other hand, may well serve to provide Quebecors with an opportunity to understand what the mission is about. A clearer view may well serve to change perspective and attitudes.

It is over the Afghanistan issue that I have some serious issues with my own support of the Liberals. I find their insistence on a hard 2009 deadline for the end of the Canadian involvement in combat in Afghanistan arbitrary and irresponsible. If the security issue is still an issue at that time then Canada would be leaving before the completion of the mission. Something Canada has never done in our history.

Based on the current Liberal stance, Canada would have pulled out of WW2 after Dieppe claiming we had done our share. Regardless of the heavy lifting being done, the mission isn’t about ‘doing a share’ it is about getting the job done. Something Canadians have always done well.

I have no doubt the Van Doos will do their part well, I just hope the politicians at home don’t play silly bugger politics with their service.

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I started to write an entry here to rail against the Liberals stupidity in demanding a hard deadline on our troops being in the forwarding operational (aka combat) areas in Afghanistan. My anger that they can’t seem to get it that no war is fought on a timetable and without security no rebuilding can happen. Then I went hunting to find out just what has the troops so committed to this mission that politicians are playing partisan politics over when it is the troops who are in harms way.

I went first to Army.ca, I visit that site often, usually lurking but appreciating being able to see the perspective of those in uniform (or formerly in uniform) who are so committed to service of my country. I found a discussion thread talking about the PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) and in it links to stories written by Marty Klinkenberg from the New Brunswick based Telegraph-Journal.

You can read his pieces, Close Enough to Feel the Heat and Soldiers ‘undoing the devil’s work’ to get a start on learning what the national mainstream media is by and large ignoring in their drive to present a defeatist front on the hard work our men and women in uniform are doing in service to Canada. The links are going to open in new windows as will all the links in this article. I’d really like you read them, if you care to learn the other side of the story.

It was from an article at The Torch about a relay race in Kandahar that the media hadn’t reported on that I hit the motherlode so to speak. The link was to the ISAF site, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force site. There on the Press Release page I found links to stories we’re all too familiar with, the deaths in Afghanistan. What I also found were links to stories that could fill media reports if reporters cared to followup on them and report some good news instead of trying to create a sense of defeat in this war.

While not all the links were about stories Canadians were directly involved in, we have to remember that with Canadians doing heavy lifting in the combat end of operations in Afghanistan and the security they are part of creating, these other stories become possible. And yes, progress is being made. Here are some highlights just from this month alone:

April 1 — US forces deliver school supplies to a girls technical school in Kandahar City.

April 2 — German PRT (provincial reconstruction team) starts project in Kunduz City, Kunduz province to build a girl’s secondary school to include a section for teacher training.

April 2 — Camp Shirzai near Kandahar a class of 86 Afghan National Army members complete a course towards becoming non-commissioned offers. As NCO’s they will be training future Afghan National Army recruits, another vital step towards independence.

April 5 — A girl’s school adjacent to a boy’s school opened in Lakhabie, Ali Abad District, Junduz Province. A German PRT initiated the project after learning girls were about to be ousted from the improvised shelter they had been using near the school by the local elders.

April 8 — Canadian Forces and RCMP personnel have completed the training of 600 Afghan National Police.

April 10 — In an area where Canadian troops were fighting last year, 500 Afghans of all ages took part in a 10km road race in Kandahar City organized by the Kandahar PRT (Canadians).

April 11 — Convoys move supplies into Sangin District Centre in order to start building infrastructure needed for the long term presence of Afghan National Security Forces. This would have been unthinkable months ago.

April 14 — Shura held at Kandahar International Airport draws 20 tribal elders to discuss security issues. The elders state there has been an increase in security throughout Kandahar Province.

April 16 — As the result of improved security in Helmand Province growth and development is beginning to take place. Where local needs are identified ISAF draws up plans and then hires local Afghans to execute the projects giving Afghans a firm hand in their country’s rebuilding and reducing the motivation for young men to join up with the Taliban.

April 17 — Projects are underway in the Daman District of Kandahar Province to repair, upgrade and expand canal systems providing employment for young Afghan males and a much needed supply of water for agriculture.

April 18 — The World Bank publishes a report on the progress of health care in Afghanistan since 2001 (the year the Taliban were ousted) when the country had some of the worst health indicators in the world. Since then, with the increasing security allowing upgrades and additions to medical facilities almost 6 million Afghans now have access to primary medical care — many for the first time.

April 18 — A class of 31 students graduate the basic course towards being Afghan National Police officers from Bamyan Regional Training Centre including 8 female recruits. A New Zealand initiative to increase the number of female recruits has now brought the number of females up to 12 from the 4 when they first arrived last October. Female members of the New Zealand PRT helped to train the original 4 who then undertook to recruit and train others.

April 18 — US servicemen deliver school supplies to a school in Kandahar. The school didn’t exist under the Taliban. It now teaches 500 students including 270 girls from grades 1-11.

April 19 — In response to a request from the Ghowr Province Agriculture Department 3,000 fruit trees have been delivered for planting by local Afghans.

Seems to me it is LONG past time for the media and more importantly politicians to start telling the whole story. I intend to be watching that ISAF site in the future. Check back often.

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