Category: Afghanistan

Holy crap, Batman! It seems that there actually is a Lefty someplace in this country that isn’t waiting on a brain donor. Mr. Cameron Campbell, apparently from somewhere in La Belle Province, is a regular commentor over at The Torch and a guy with a serious social pedigree, has gone and gotten utterly sick and tired of Jumpin’ Jack! Jerkweed. In a recent Torch post, he shares a letter that he recently sent the little smirkin’ gherkin and I gotta tell ya, this is one damn smart Lefty…

Mr. Jack Layton,

On your biography page it says that you believe in practical solutions for problems. And yet you keep saying things like “The strategy being followed by NATO right now is producing the precise opposite effect to the one that the promoters of this mission are suggesting should be the goal,” Layton said. “In other words, growth of support for the Taliban because of these air strikes.”

Only a comprehensive peace process — not armed conflict — can resolve the crisis in Afghanistan, he argued, noting that “students of history will know that all major conflicts are resolved ultimately through peace-oriented discussions.””

Actually history shows us that peace happens when several conditions exist, not the least of which being that one side feels like they’ve lost, so your argument, respectfully, is utter crap.

I’m being quite serious, “peace-oriented discussions” (also known as peace negotiations or talks – who writes for you? They should be fired.) require that 1) everyone wants peace 2) there is a central authority to negotiate with 3) that the end of conflict will not immediately be replaced with some new, different kind of conflict (like, say, a series of genocidal massacres based on, say, supporting democracy and western style ideals of same).

So your thesis fails on point one horribly, on point two it’s laughable, and on point three you’re displaying a callousness towards human life that makes me want to vomit.

The reality is that there is no peace to keep, no peace to negotiate for, no one to negotiate with and no secure area to negotiate within. Pretending that these conditions exist is a fantasy.

Once the left was populated by people like my Uncles who fought in WW2, by people like Orwell and Trumbo, who could tell wrong from right and could figure out that something had to be done about it.

Now it’s populated by people like you who believe in a pacifist unilateralism that appears to me to be suicidal. Certainly we don’t get to negotiate peace with allies, but suggesting that the way forward in Afghanistan is via a policy of unidimensional ” peace-oriented discussions” (still thinking that someone should loose their job over that..) ignores the reality and the complexity of the situation. This knee jerk reaction towards anything involving the US (and increasingly, NATO) is, frankly, childish and simplistic.

I think the current regime in the US are a pack of corrupt, right wing demagogues, most of whom need a good sending to bed without dinner (and/or jail time) but in my read, that has bugger all to do with the fact that the Canadian Forces presence in the reconstruction and (horrors) combat operations in Afghanistan is accomplishing good.

Additionally sir, the tying of Canadian troops, even tangentially, to what you seem to believe is a NATO policy of bombing civilians for sport is disgusting. It does your position utterly no good at all. It’s wrong.

I know that journalists seek you out every time a Canadian is killed in Afghanistan and why not? You give good clip. But the constant sight of you scoring cheap political points with the deaths of our military personal? It wears sir. A suggestion, one that would ratchet up many peoples respect for you by something like 100%, would be to tell the journalists a variation on “There will be time to discuss the mission later, today our thoughts are with our brave soldiers and their families.” Trite? Maybe. Lacking in the fun oomph of scoring cheap shots? Oh yes. Respectful and classy? Indeed.

I come from a family who’s political views range from red Tory all the way to charter members of the CCF (my Great Aunt and Uncle were XXXX and XXXX), with stops along the way in trade unionism, full on communists and just about every other colour of the socially progressive rainbow. I’ve voted for your party in the past (and in the absence of your party running a viable candidate in my riding, for M. Duceppe), so it pains me to say this: I will never vote for the NDP while you are at it’s helm.

Never.

I’ll vote for a fringe party, the Monarchists, the Communist party, whatever local looney has managed to get together the deposit by borrowing the money from his friend, but never ever again the NDP.

I expect no response to this letter, I expect that you won’t even see it or have it read to you (Hello, by the way, to the intern reading this. I hope you’re having a great summer, my jobs always sucked and involved lifting boxes or digging holes, good on you for scoring a good one. Enjoy it, and good luck next semester. Stay in school.), I know that democracy no longer works that way but it felt like the least I could do.

With great regret,

Cameron Campbell

Now just how the hell am I supposed to convincingly explain to people what idiots socialists are, when one of them goes around saying stuff like that?? 😕

And a big ol’ top o’ the chapeau to Babbling Brooks, who is the one that I got word of this from. His own commentary was pretty damned good, too, so check it out.

Okay, the hangover’s worn off and I’m ready to get back to presenting my opinions like a cranky caged ape flinging poop at a gaggle of rubberneckers.

I have no idea exactly how it happened, but here’s how it went:

I got into it with one of those playdoh-skulled peaceniks on Friday night. You know the type; the ones that never met anything military that wouldn’t make ’em open a fudge factory in their Stanfields. This particular twerp was going on and on about how we shouldn’t be Fighting Dubya’s War For Oil© and oppressing the nice terrorists in Afghanistan and all the other usual bullshit. He was also űberpissed about how we were making our soldiers go and fight a war they wanted no part in.

That’s where my bullshitometer redlined. I pulled the emergency brake on his little chatter choochoo and gave him the bad news that service in Afghanistan is purely voluntary for CAF personnel. In other words, if you don’t ask, you don’t go. Of course, he tried to argue that with me (a doomed effort if ever there was one) but when that failed, he fell back on wondering “what kind of person volunteers for something like that.”

And that’s when it happened.

I had a profundity; right there in the middle of the pub. I imagine they’ve probably cleaned it up by now (it was one of those kinds of places) but it still happened, nonetheless…

“What kind of person does that?” I asked, still shaking off the incredulity. “Lemme ask ya something, bozo: do you own a dog?”
“Um, yeah,” he answered, wondering where the hell I was going with that.
“Has your dog ever gotten sick?”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” This bonehead clearly had no idea what was coming.
“Just answer the damn question: has your dog ever gotten sick?”
“Well, yeah; once or twice.”
“Did you hake him to the vet?”
“Of course.”
“So you took your sick dog to the vet?”
“Yes, I took my sick f#%!ing dog to the f#%!ing vet, what the hell’s your point?” He was probably wondering if we were having the same conversation by now.
“So you treat your dog better than the Taliban treated women?”
“WHAT?!?!?” Where’s a camera when you need one? 🙄
“If your dog gets sick, you take it to the vet. Under the Taliban, if a woman gets sick, she can’t be examined by a male doctor, only by a woman doctor. But ther aren’t any women doctors, are there? Because women aren’t allowed to have jobs. And even if they could get jobs, they aren’t allowed to go to school. So that woman sits in the house — because she isn’t allowed to leave or she risks getting the shit beat out of her in the streets by the local “guardians of virtue” — with the disease or whatever it is working its way through her, and she either lives or she dies. Period. That’s it. And you can’t get your pissant little brain around the idea that some people might volunteer to do their part to put an end to something like that??”

After that, he quickly retreated back to burbling about colonialism, oil and Dubya until I popped him in the smeller and he went away. Not my proudest moment, perhaps, but one that I won’t be ashamed to share with my son one day when he’s older. (And before some knob out there starts accusing me of “advocating violence” or some other such bullshit, remember that I put a cute little kitten graphic to the right, so that makes it all okay )

Because I know, in my bones, something that waffling little snot will spend the rest of his life trying to avoid knowing: Without men like me, men like him are an evolutionary dead end.

Out of Afghanistan by February of ’09.

That’s become the favourite bleat of the federal Liberal party of late and the “bring them home at any cost” crowd have seized upon it like a flock of seagulls fighting over a dead fish.

“Support our troops; bring them home!” they snivel, as they try to cloak their self-serving abhorrence of all things military in the colours of patriotism. And every flag-draped casket that returns to Canadian soil seems to make them worse and worse, as they sickeningly caterwaul the same old bullshit over and over again:

Our young men are dying for George Dubya Shrubâ„¢ and Big Oil®. It’s America’s war, not ours. The Afghans beat the Soviet Union so what chance do we have? They don’t want us there; the only ones who want us in Afghanistan are the “chickenhawks.” And perhaps the worst one: we’re the ones who are the oppressors and it’s the insurgents guerillas murdering sons of bitches that are the freedom fighters 😯 and our soldiers don’t want any part of that; they’re just following the orders of Stephen Dubya (for Warmonger) Harper and his Extreme Far Right Agenda.

I don’t have the time to pick these apart one by one and give them the full treatment that they deserve, so I’ll just summarize…

• Harper didn’t send us to Afghanistan, the Liberano$ did.
• It’s the UN‘s mission, NOT the US’s (You guys remember the UN, right? The international toothless tiger that you think should make all the decisions?).
• The Afghans didn’t beat the Soviets, the Americans did; Afghanistan was just another front in the Cold War, which was won by the West, NOT by Islamofascists.
• Have you ever asked an Afghani if they want us there? Get back to me after you’ve tried that. I already have.

And as far as the “chickenhawk” and “they don’t want to be there” arguments go, that’s utter bullshit. Have any of these idiots ever even talked to a soldier? A real one, that is; not some gutless Yank hiding out from his unit up here. The ones who are most dedicated to the mission are the ones who have to actually put their asses on the line for it, and who pay the real price. The price that is measured not in votes or sound bytes or how many potheads show up for the latest “peace” rally. Contrary to the cliche, it isn’t even measured in blood. It is a price measured in lives, snuffed out forever. It is paid in that horrible place where the world turns to fire and every sound is drowned out by the roaring fury of armageddon until it is finally driven away by the voice of your maker calling you home.

It is a price not paid by the likes of you and I; it is paid by our betters. Paid by women like the Capt. Nichola Goddard and men like Cpl. Brent Donald Poland:

Soldier: ‘If I die, that is my destiny’
Sat, April 21, 2007
By JOE MATYAS, SUN MEDIA

Pupils from Temple Christian Academy throw petals onto the road in Sarnia yesterday in front of the hearse carrying the body of Cpl. Brent Poland killed on Easter Sunday in Afghanistan, doing what he most wanted. (MORRIS LAMONT Sun Media)

SARNIA — He was an officer who gave up his higher rank and higher pay to serve in the Canadian Forces infantry.

And Cpl. Brent Donald Poland, 37, died in the service of his country, doing what he wanted to do, 1,400 mourners were told here yesterday.

“My brother loved this country, believed in Canadian values and believed in freedom,” Mark Poland, a Kitchener Crown prosecutor and major in the reserves, said in a testimonial during a funeral service at Temple Baptist Church.

Poland packed up his kit bag and boarded the military flight to Afghanistan “with eyes wide open,” said Mark, adding his brother, always independent of mind, was convinced he was doing something meaningful.

During his last meeting with his brother, when they were huddled on a porch smoking “big stinky guitars,” Brent asked Mark:

“How would you like to live in a place where women aren’t allowed to read and where children have no hope?”

Brent was both nervous and excited about going to a combat zone, said Mark.

He was prepared for anything and said: “If I die on the battlefields of Afghanistan, then that is my destiny.”

The complete article is here; read it. Not getting it yet? Here’s something from Poland’s hometown paper, the Sarnia Observer:

Cpl. Poland laid to rest
Mourners numbered about 1,200
By DAN McCAFFERY
Local News – Saturday, April 21, 2007

Cpl. Brent Poland was remembered Friday as a courageous soldier who loved his family, friends and country.

Poland, one of six Canadians killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Easter Sunday, was laid to rest following an emotional funeral service at Temple Baptist Church.

His younger brother, Mark Poland, told an estimated 1,200 mourners that Brent could easily have avoided combat, had he wanted to.

In fact, Brent had suffered a back injury in training that made it impossible for him to continue serving as a 2nd Lieutenant. At that point, he could have transferred out of the infantry, retained his rank and accepted a less demanding job in the Canadian Forces.

But “he would not hear of it,” Mark said. “He loved the infantry.”

Instead, although he was almost twice as old as the average foot soldier, he accepted a demotion of several ranks and remained in the infantry as a corporal.

Capt. David Ferris, who trained with Brent, confirmed the story. “Brent once said if he couldn’t lead soldiers, then he would be led, but either way he would be on that battlefield.”

Mark Poland said Brent went to war fully aware of the risks. Shortly before he went overseas he gathered old high school buddies for a reunion and made a point of visiting family and friends. “He was preparing those around him for the possibility this very day could come,” he said.Mark recalled discussing the Afghanistan mission with Brent the last time they met. When someone questioned the wisdom of the operation, Brent replied by asking whether they’d like to live in a country where women weren’t allowed to read, or where people had no future.

Mark noted the terrorists who murdered 3,000 civilians on Sept. 11, 2001 were trained in Afghanistan. “It was into the fierce winds of 9/11 that my brother stepped with his head held high,” he said.

Mark said Brent “went into the mission with his eyes wide open. That is the very essence of courage and the very definition of bravery.”

Brent wrote a letter for his family that was only to be opened in the event of his death. In it, he wrote, “Hi folks. If you are reading this, I bought the farm in Afghanistan.” The first point he wanted to make, he said, is that they should “stop blubbering.” He had, he continued, experienced more in his 37 years than most people had in three lifetimes.

He joined the army, he said, because he had been “miserable” while working as a project manager in the Toronto area.

During his life, Brent earned two university degrees, travelled through Europe and even spent time teaching English in a tiny Greek village.

Born in Sarnia, he was raised in Camlachie and spent many a summer day on his grandparents’ farm just outside Brigden.

Mark said his brother lived an idyllic childhood in which he loved to roam the woods, beaches and open fields.

When he enrolled at York University, Brent invited Mark and his friends to visit him, despite the fact they were still in high school. Some on campus may have thought it wasn’t a “cool” thing to do, Mark said. “But Brent could have cared less. Brent lived life independently minded and fiercely loyal to his family and friends.”

As Brent was borne to his grave, hundreds of people lined Quinn Drive. School children tossed flowers and waved flags.

The procession, which stretched for as far as the eye could see, wound its way through rural Lambton, finally ending up at Bear Creek Cemetery, a little country graveyard not far from his grandparents farm.

As the hearse turned down a dusty road leading to the cemetery, a lonely piper stood in the bright sunshine, playing ‘Going Home.’

Noni Seybrook of the Forest Legion Pipe Band said as a young lad Brent had undoubtedly roamed the fields he was now passing on his way to his grave. “Bear Creek ran behind the Poland property and you know how boys are with tadpoles,” she said. “I’m going to play ‘Going Home.’ It’s a nice tune, and it’s fitting. He’s coming home.”

Our soldiers aren’t dying for oil, they aren’t dying for Dubya or for Haliburton and they aren’t God damned stupid, so stop acting like they are!! They do what they do because they’re doing what’s right. The Cindy Sheehan-grade idiots may not be able to figure that out, but those who wear the uniform know it. They know it in their bones. They know it so well that they will go out of their way to risk their lives for it, and die for it if they have to.

So, to those “bring ’em home” types out there: the next time you open your piehole to say that you support the troops but not the mission, don’t bother. Lie to yourself, if you want but don’t expect me to eat up your bullshit like ice cream. Saying you support the troops but not the mission is like saying that you support freedom but think Hitler should have been left alone.

The troops support the mission.
They support it with their lives.
They aren’t stupid.
They know what they’re doing.
They’re doing the right thing.

Quit pretending that you support them.
You don’t.
And we all know it.

Dang; willya lookit all this? I take a few days off and, lo & behold, a total buttload of interesting stuff all pops up all over the place.

The Poor Little Rich Girl of Canadian politics has decided that, since nobody will let her be in charge, she’s running back home to Daddy’s company to… well, be in charge. Because of her overwhelming qualifications, of course. Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya on the way out.

The Torys put yet another nail in the now almost all-nail coffin of the billion-buck bugger-up of the long gun registry and the Liebrals, naturally, were miffed that it was done outside of Parliament where they could have huffed and puffed — but actually done sweet bugger all — about it:

“It says the Conservatives are trying to do by stealth what they can’t do out in the open — which is kill the long gun registry,” said Liberal Justice Critic Marlene Jennings.

“But by doing it by stealth, they are attempting to ensure that the vast majority of Canadians won’t know what they’re doing, and so they get away with it.”

No, dipshit; it means that the Tories — along with most other people in this country that have two non-partisan brain cells to rub together — are sick and God damned tired of worthless, self-serving, Grit grandstanding on this issue and have decided to take away one of your favourite horns. Go toot something else. Have some beans.

Our boys in Afghanistan had a bad day over the Easter weekend. Perhaps in something of a telling portent of changing values, the deaths of six of our men came almost right on top of the 90th anniversary of the assault on Vimy Ridge where losing six men would have happened about every seven minutes. 3,598 dead in three days; do the math. And none of them came home. But look to get innundated with a fresh volly of “body of fallen soldier begins/continues/ends long journey home” stories in the MSM for the next while (unless there’s something more Lefty-friendly to blab about for a few minutes).

All charges were finally dropped agains the lacrosse players from Duke University, which must have totally baffled the lib-left because hey, the accuser was black and the accused were white. Which means they’re clearly guilty, right?

Hockey season ended. Early.

And much, much more. Dang. Well, I’m back now and seeing as how I’m laid off for a while, that should mean that I’m going to have a lot more time to dish out all the little nuggets of wisdom that you have all come to know, love and depend on to get through your days.

This is not good. Not good at all. It’s still pretty early in the game so there isn’t yet any real way to conclusively verify the accuracy of these reports but they are still worrisome, to say the least.

There are a few sources here and there — like Iran’s IRNA, Stratfor and India’s Zee News — have started reporting in the last few hours that at least two “top nuclear scientists of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission” have been snatched by the Taliban, likely at the behest of Al-Qaeda, and are likely being held somewhere in Waziristan…

The two scientists were kidnapped about six months ago. To avoid international embarrassment Pakistan Government has kept this information under wraps, said an Indian private news channel “Zee News”.

According to information available with Zee News, nuclear scientists have been kidnapped by Taliban at the behest of Al-Qaeda.

Further investigations reveal that Al-Qaeda may be using the expertise of the scientists to produce nuclear bombs. The two scientists are reportedly being held somewhere in Waziristan, near Afghanistan border.

In January this year Pakistan security agencies had foiled another attempt by Taliban militia to kidnap nuclear scientists. Earlier, incidents of Taliban militia stealing uranium in NWFP have already been reported. PAEC also has a uranium mining facility in NWFP.

If there is anyone out there who even slightly doubts Al-Qaeda’s motives here, my message is simple: shoot yourself in the head now before you pollute the gene pool. You are too stupid to live.

We are talking about an organization that has stated, quite plainly, that its ultimate objective is to establish a worldwide Caliphate by any means necessary, including killing anyone that disagrees with them (put that in yer ACLU pipe and smoke it). Make no mistake, if these assholes get a nuke, they will use it.

Maybe somewhere near you.

And here I thought that this kind of idiocy was, gratefully, a thing of the past. I guess not. Oh, well; at least it dates back to the days of Grit government.  Plenty of media outlets are hooting away lately about an organization called the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) and a project that they were running in Afghanistan. Now, I don’t recall ever hearing about IMPACS before, but their webpage describes them as “a registered not-for-profit charitable organization committed to strengthening the voice and profile of civil society organizations in Canada and internationally,” and a little poking around seems to indicate a bit of a Leftist slant to their philosophy.

Another indication might be the pie-in-the-sky, impractical, idealistic approach that they took to their project in Afghanistan. According to the IMPACS website for the project:

IMPACS Afghanistan works to encourage the development of free and fair media in Afghanistan. It focuses its work on women’s participation in media, and the use of media as a tool to educate women.

Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? I mean, after all, isn’t it about time that Afghan women — who were treated little better than slaves or livestock under the Taliban regime — had more of a voice? Hell, this actually sounds like something I’d give a few bucks to myself, so look for all the usual suspects latched onto the public teat to wail away about how this is another example of the cold-hearted Conservative Hidden Agenda® now that Ottawa has pulled the plug (after damn near $3 million was already blown) on its funding. The problem is that the agency made a complete balls-up of it.

So what did they do to accomplish their stated goals? Well, see for yourself:

• “… the 2004 launch of a now defunct monthly newspaper in the capital of Kabul, the report says. Its purpose was in part to train female reporters and educate women about politics and other issues. “
• “The rest of the $2.7 million in total CIDA funds was previously used to start two radio stations. They offered women, especially in rural areas, a rare chance to be trained and heard in a repressively male-dominated culture.”

A radio station. In rural Afghanistan. Where most buildings have no electricity at all and the majority of the ones that do, haven’t got radios.

And a newspaper. Isn’t that nice? The problem with putting out a newspaper for Afghan women is that, thanks to the prohibition against schooling girls that was in force for all the years of Taliban rule, fewer than 10% of the female population can actually read the damn thing!

Now, I have NO problem whatsoever with charities that do good work (and there are plenty of them) but this… this was nothing more than a money pit. All it did was to supply a few do-gooder moonbats with jobs for a few months.  And, in typical Lefty fashion, they responded to questions with the predictable “go away; we’re doing nice things” attitude:

Asked to explain the audit’s findings, a CIDA spokesperson said no one was available.

“A briefing is not a possibility at this time,” said Greg Scott. In an e-mail, he said that IMPACS was the first media development group trying to put women’s voices on community radio.

The problem, Greggy, is that putting “women’s voices on community radio” doesn’t do Jack Shit. Teach them to read first.  Go out into the Afghan countryside and actually get your hands dirty.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The problem with “liberals” is that they see the world as they think it should be, act accordingly, and then wonder what the hell went wrong (or try to blame conservatives) when they end up accomplishing nothing.  Conservatives, on the other hand, see the world as it is, warts and all, and just deal with it in the most direct fashion possible.