The fundamental question about Afghanistan is whether Canadians would have supported a war to bring democracy out of the barrel of a gun without the events of 9/11 happening. But, instead of launching a police operation against Osama bin Laden and government officials who harboured him we supported the US when they opted for invasion and occupation without ever getting Osama despite thousands of civilian deaths and massive human rights violations.
It is darkly ironic that some of the people who support our troops staying in Afghanistan until the country submits to NATO's civilization efforts are also writing to support the torturing of captured terrorist suspects before they are even convicted of a crime. They forget that many of these people are probably innocent. In Canada we would not support torture even of convicted terrorists. This is a double standard which must have racism at its root.
Canadians need to put themselves in the shoes of the Aghanis. Imagine a powerful dark-skinned muslim nation was to invade Canada and, focusing on all our flaws (such as prostitution, alcohol abuse, gambling and drug abuse), impose a religious state and go around killing all white, christian voters who resisted (along with many civilians). Would we see young people who resisted as terrorists or freedom fighters? Would we not claim that it is up to Canadians to deal with our social and governance problems, not outsiders?
