There are few issues in Canadian politics that more clearly reveal the differences between the
three major political parties than that concerning Afghanistan.
The Conservatives want to maintain an aggressive position and even increase our military presence.
The New Democrats want Canada to end its combat mission as soon as possible and revert to an aid
and development role.
And the Liberals, true to form, can't make up their minds, favouring both a combat role (for a while),
then a police training role (for a while) and then we'll see.
In the New Democrats' view, our position is correct on almost all fronts.
First, it is consistent with long-standing Canadian policy to play a peaceful and
constructive role on the world stage.
Ever since Canada's Nobel Prize-winning diplomacy helped end the Suez crisis in 1956,
our nation has followed a peace-keeping and peace-making policy.
For over 50 years, Canadians have been proud of and supported this foreign policy -
one that has earned the respect of people all over the globe.
No political party - neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives - has ever been given a
mandate from the Canadian people to alter this policy.
The Liberals' decision to enter Afghanistan was done without any parliamentary debate whatsoever.
The Conservatives never campaigned on a clear platform to alter Canada's role.
Polls have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of Canadians want to maintain this policy
and do not agree with a militarized combat role for Canada in Afghanistan.
Second, common sense and experience have repeatedly shown that it is virtually impossible
to impose democracy - or indeed any type of government foreign to a domestic arena - on
a nation from the outside. No matter how well-intentioned, history is full of examples of
failed attempt in this regards.
The U.S., the world's most powerful nation both economically and militarily, couldn't
do it in Vietnam. The USSR, pouring billions of dollars and massive military might,
couldn't do it in Afghanistan. Germany couldn't do it in Europe, France couldn't do it in
Indochina and Britain couldn't do it in India, China or Africa.
Only legitimate, domestically-grown movements supported by the popular will of the
people of a nation can lead to true change.
In present-day Afghanistan, Western governments are simply destined to fail in
their attempts to create and prop-up a Western-style democracy that is foreign to the
Afghan culture and social conditions at this point in time.
As courageous Afghan parliament member Malalai Joya herself has stated,
"No nation can donate liberation to another nation."
Third, we have no clear idea why we are in Afghanistan, what we are fighting for and
how we can measure our success in meeting our goals.
If we are there to impose democracy, build human rights and establish good government,
we are failing miserably, with no prospect for success in sight for years to come.
The Karzai government is filled with warlords and opium dealers.
The police forces and other government officials are so corrupt that western agencies have
been forced to make direct payroll payments or else the money will simply be stolen.
The Afghani parliament saw Ms. Joya physically and verbally attacked right in parliament for
daring to speak her mind as a freely elected popular leader from her province.
Ultimately, she was suspended from parliament for 3 years for the "crime" of openly criticizing
her colleagues.
We now know that despite the Harper government's statements to the contrary
(and attempts to hide the facts), the Afghan government has been and is regularly torturing
captured prisoners in full violation of international law and treaties.
This puts Canada squarely in violation ourselves, as it is against the Geneva Convention for
a country to hand over captured combatants to authorities that it believes will torture them.
Just two days ago we learned that a court in northern Afghanistan sentenced a journalist to
death for the crime of writing investigative stories of abuses by high-ranking officials in the region.
And after six years of Western intervention, aid agencies report that opium production is at
record levels, services and freedoms for girls and women are not measurably improved and poverty,
illness, violence and child mortality are at the highest levels in decades.
So: drug-dealers, warlords, female assaults, torture, death sentences, corruption,
poverty, censored press and politicians who aren't allowed to speak their minds -
this is what Canadians are being asked to support?
Remember, this is not what we are fighting against - this is the record of the side we are
fighting for.
Does anyone think we will be able to change these facts by occupation? If so, does
anyone think this will not take many years, many Canadian deaths and billions of dollars?
In our view, the basic questions come down to this: what is Canada's role in the world,
and how can we best assist other countries to improve the lives of their citizens.
The New Democrats answer these questions differently than the other two parties.
We believe that we should meet our international obligations in terms of foreign aid, which successive
Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to do.
Canada should contribute constructively and peacefully to governments that have the support
of their people and who are committed to principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
We should maintain an independent foreign policy distinct from the U.S. -
a country that thinks it has the right to "regime change" governments it doesn't
like by military force. We should not buy into such a notion.
We should use our military to help establish peace, protect civilians and provide humanitarian aid -
and not enter aggressive military adventures that harm our well-earned reputation on the world stage.
If we are to intervene in another sovereign nation, we should use our resources, our money and our
young people to build schools, train teachers, dig wells and provide economic assistance and technology -
not conduct war.
We should change our policy in Afghanistan immediately to conform to these principles.
And we should listen to the majority of Canadians who feel the same way.
That is what a true democracy does.
We should pay attention to this once again in our own nation.
