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Headlines : "War on Terror"Protesters demand withdrawal from Afghanistan
“Troops out now!” was a common chant by demonstrators across the country. Many seemed opposed to the fact Canada was involved in combat in Afghanistan, rather than carrying out a traditional peacekeeping mission.
[Posted By gaanjah_mama]Republished from CTV.ca
There were nearly 200 people protesting and waving placards in Halifax, almost 500 marching in Montreal and 600 in Vancouver.
CTV News’ Denelle Balfour reported there were several hundred people attending the Toronto rally, which gathered outside the downtown U.S. consulate.
Speaking from the Toronto rally, NDP Leader Jack Layton told CTV Newsnet that Canadians are not protesting to discourage the troops, but rather to support them.
“We are raising these questions to support our troops,” Layton said. “Our job as citizens is to make sure we’re asking them to do the right thing in the world … there is a sense that this mission is the wrong mission for Canada and that it is not helping to achieve the goals we all have in mind for Afghanistan.”
Former military cadet Francisco Juarez also spoke at the rally. He told CTV Newsnet that Canada needs a broader debate on the Afghanistan mission, both in the public and in the House of Commons.
Some military personnel felt the protesters didn’t fully understand the mission.
Posted by gaanjah_mama
"The global village is deteriorating at a rapid pace, and in the children of the world the result is rage." -Romeo Dallaire ____________________________________________________________ Harold: "You're good with people." ...
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Posted by gaanjah_mama on Saturday, October 28th 2006
Protesters are demanding Canadian troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan. This story hits home for me and some of my friends are in theatre now.
I opposed both wars and I used to be part of Mobilization Against War & Occupation in Vancouver. I gathered petitions against Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan at that time. Since talking to some of my friends who have served in the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, I’ve changed my mind and I support the Canadian mission there. Canada didn’t invade the country and they’re not occupying it, but they are fighting a very dangerous Taliban resurgence that could destroy whatever freedom came out of the war that toppled them. I’m more optimistic about the chances of Canada’s forces in Afghanistan producing lasting stability than I am about the US in Iraq. Iraq seems to have become hopeless the moment Rumsfield fired the Iraqi Army and sent them home to starve and plot revenge. Afghanis just want to be left alone and when the Taliban is defeated or Afghani forces can handle them we’ll be able to withdraw in a few years.
Some people think there is a third option: Canada should withdraw to the North and focus on aid and reconstruction there, ceding the South to the Taliban for now. Some people think Canadian media is doing a bad job of explaining things. Frontline says Pakistan is acting as a haven to the Taliban. NDP Leader Layton said of Martin before Harper came on the scene:
“If Paul Martin wants to involve Canada directly in a war in Afghanistan, then he must spell out what our goals are, what our commitments will be, and when and how we will get out. We then require a real national debate, and a clear democratic decision taken by Parliament.”
A debate is clearly in order and I salute the protesters of which I have been one in the past for bringing their concerns about the mission because the one thing we don’t want to do is get into an American-style cut-and-run vs stay-the-course impasse. Canadian soldiers and Afghanis both deserve a winning strategy that brings about the best possible future for both our nations.
What do you think?
I think your sick in the head if you think that we will be of any help to the Afghani’s in the long term. We’ve lost a friend over there and he thought that he was helping, he’d talk about the children that they’d given dolls to, villagers that welcomed them into their homes.
This war is not about civi’s, it’s not about helping them achieve our freedumb or “democracy”, it’s about money.