Canada turns to private sector to honour Afghan veterans

When you read up on the folks behind the True Patriot Love Foundation it's really hard not to come away with the impression that the Honouring Afghan Veterans initiative is driven by a bunch of self-promoters eager to ingratiate themselves with the Harper gang.

You've got a guy at the top who is in the business of privatizing health care. A couple of other big dogs are minor players in the hedge fund industry. Top that up with a couple of PR industry insiders, and that's the "True Patriot Love Foundation."

These are the folks we've entrusted to honour our Afghanistan veterans.

May 9 is to be our memorial day to honour the Canadian servicemen and women who died in that country. When the party was initially announced, there was a bit of a kerfluffle over the fact that the promoters of this public-private joint-venture commemoration expected the families of the deceased to pay their own way to Ottawa for the festivities.

Isn't that rich? Ma and Pa from Moose Jaw can pay their own way to Ottawa to celebrate our achievements in Afghanistan which took the life of their child...

That gambit took enough heat that it's now been changed to "somebody" will pick up their travel costs. That somebody doesn't seem to be the Harper government, but rather the "foundation" that put this PR exercise together.

And what exactly are we celebrating here?

Who remembers the bullshit 'n bluster from the Hillier days when our boys were gonna go and fix those murdering scumbag Talibs pronto?

Then we had innumerable quotes from the big dogs, Harper and Defence Minister MacKay, to the effect that us Canadians are not the sort to cut and run and we're gonna be there to the bitter end blahblahblah...

We've long since cut and run, the murdering scumbags are poised to retake the country, 158 Canadians died for nothing, and we're going to have a celebration?

Canada leads NATO nations in declaring Taliban an official terrorist entity

All informed observers acknowledge that for peace to come to Afghanistan the West must negotiate with the Taliban. In fact, there are negotiations about negotiations going on right now in Dubai.

So what's up with this exercise in grandstanding by the Government of Canada?

Also of interest is that the announcement apparently comes from the office of old Vic Toews, the Minister of Public Safety, rather than from the Department of Foreign Affairs where it more properly belongs.

Could it be that this is just another manifestation of sour grapes due to the fact that the Taliban ran the Canadians out of Afghanistan?

Who can ever forget the big talk from General Rick Hillier at the time Canada's Afghan mission was announced; the Taliban were "scumbags and murderers" and Hillier and company were going set things right pronto.

There followed several years of bold pronouncements about punching above our weight, and, reiterated many times; we're not the type to cut and run.

Then the Canadians cut and ran.

But they're still talking above their weight.

Canada Foreign Minister admits Afghan mission a failure

John Baird shocked the nation today with his blunt refusal to consider sending Canadian troops into Mali.

Canadians have hitherto been under the impression that their mission in Afghanistan has been a great success. How could they have come to believe such rubbish?

Because for ten years, every time PM Harper or Defense Minister MacKay or a top armed forces honcho visited that benighted land they came back with glowing stories of what a "great success" our mission was.

Here is a typical whopper from Harper as the combat mission was winding down.

"We have to consider the mission a great success."

Obviously if it was such a great success, it wouldn't be cited by Baird today as the reason for steering clear of Mali.

Quite aside from how many Afghan lives we wasted, Canada's ten year war in Afghanistan was a waste of Canadian lives and Canadian money.

The truth of the matter is that Canada's Afghan debacle was a debacle pretty much from the moment General Rick Hillier made his boastful threats about "killing scumbags."

But at some level I suppose it's reassuring that even while the Harperites are lying to us they know the truth.