Well, Why Are We in Afghanistan?
Because, stupid, it's a human-rights issue. Because we were dragged into this issue, like it or not. Because the Taliban were so unspeakably dreadful. Because we felt such great compassion for the plight of Afghani women and children under the Taliban's disgustingly-brutal regime. Because, in fact, we had little choice, given who our friends are, and how they are deployed. Because we have a conscience, and we like to be able to live with it. Because we actually feel that with some sacrifice on our part we can help deliver that poor benighted country into the modern world.I don't know about you, but I sincerely believe all of the above. With one notable exception; the very last sentence in the paragraph above.
Canadian soldiers have been deployed, at the behest of their government, in an acridly nasty battlefield of a country. The long-suffering inhabitants of that country want peace, stability, some promise of a decent future for themselves, their children. Whether that will ever be attainable by Western standards is a moot point, but for the present, the misery visited upon Afghan women and girls has been lifted.
We have sent our young men into danger. For the purpose of being of assistance to a badly bruised population. Danger lurks around every bend of the road, and they are aware of this. At a safe distance, we are too, and expect no less of our soldiers than that they will rise above their natural fears and aid and assist where they can. While remaining alert to the potential spectre of death set into the roadside wherever their vehicles travel.
Democracy, don't even think about it. If anything approximating democracy ever takes root there, it will not be of a variety readily identifiable by any Canadian. Democracy under Sharia law? Perhaps, after all, democracy is the will of the people. A people steeped in the overarching laws of Islam. To practise a religion other than Islam is a crime under Islamic law. This is a version of freedom of thought, of association, of choice, of speech that we are quite unfamiliar with.
In the capital of Afghanistan a man will be sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity. The judge in this case says that this poor man will be "invited" to reverse himself and once again adopt Islam, shedding Christianity. Because, said the judge "Islam is one of tolerance", and "we will forgive him". Meanwhile the state prosecutor, somewhat less kind, insists that the man, Abdul Rahman, "must get the death penalty".
So much for that last sentence up there in the first paragraph. Unless, by some future miracle, the struggle in Afghanistan between religious conservatives and reformers has the latter shaping the country's destiny. That is, if foreign troops currently stationed there are ultimately successful in defanging the resurgent Taliban forces.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 21, 2006
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