Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Spector tells Harper how to wiggle out of the Afghanistan trap

Checking out the comments bulletin boards in major Canadian newspapers [An oxymoron? Ed.], I see that opinion is running heavily against "Call me Steve" Harper's solo decision to extend the mission in Afghanistan for another three years. Even the CBC's "Cross-country Checkup" ["Cross Country", surely. Ed.], which is notorious for screening callers to make sure they only parrot the politically correct party line, had more "antis" than "pros" on Sunday.

You would think that, with public opinion running roughly 2 to 1 against staying in the cesspit that is Afghanistan, Mr. Harpoon might be having second thoughts about the wisdom of caving in to the American demands. Trouble is, having flip-flopped so publicly, and having been caught in a monstrous lie, it's not so easy to do it again.

To the rescue comes Norman Spector, Globe and Mail columnist and at one time a top bureaucrat and political advisor to the not-soon-enough-ex Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. In today's column, Spector advises Mr. Baloney's successor to let Parliament vote on the issue, rather than pretend it's an executive decision that he (Harper) can take on his own.

The way Spector sees it, Harper can't lose by letting Parliament decide. If they vote "yes", it relieves him of responsibility for the further loss of life and treasure. If they vote "no", Harper can go to his masters in the White House and the Pentagon and say, "Gee, sorry, but I couldn't get it past those stupid elected representatives."

It's a brilliant strategy, with the bonus of being seen to be clearly democratic. Even Obama has to have the advice and consent of the Senate before waging war. Why should the Prime Minister of Canada be any different?

1 comment:

  1. Afghanistan is a wild, violent and tribal country with indefinite borders set by previous imperialist adventurism. There never was nor is today a central government that has any control of the country and the culture or cultures are quite alien to western thinking.

    So the reason for invasion is very murky whereas the reason for leaving is very clear. Afghanis don't need training to fight - they have been booting out foreigners for centuries.

    As for training policemen, somehow the "What 'ave we 'ere then? Yer 'onor, 'e was found to 'ave about his person an AK-47 which he proceeded to discharge in my direction" doesn't quite fit the culture. It hasn't worked till now and how long has that been?

    Stop trying to change a culture. It won't work. And stop supporting American adventurism.

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