The Afghan War (Letter censored by Globe and Mail Editors)

The Globe and Mail is one of Canada’s leading newspapers. I fairly often submit letters but, no matter how restrained I am in my language, they rarely get printed. January 3rd was an exception but my letter on the futility and immorality of the Afghan war was heavily censored. Below you can see the text the Globe’s editors deleted in struck-through red and the words they added in underlined teal. The black text is in common to what I submitted and what was published.

I think that what was deleted or modified is a good indication of the limits on public discourse imposed by the mass media in Canada.

---

Dear Editors;


Jules Guitard is certainly right to note that we are in Aghanistan because of 9/11.


But is it morally right to avenge 3,000 deaths on September 11th by starting with a war that has killed thousands more Afghan civilians killed more civilians than this in its first month? To capture suspects and send them to a medieval jail system where they are more likely to be tortured than receive justice? To assist an ally, the US, that is known to use waterboarding and other forms of torture and that refuses to abide by the Geneva Conventions?

Is it effective to start a war in which the military has not achieved what should have been a police goal: arresting Bin Laden and his henchmen?

Is it right intelligent to always see those opposing us as the Taliban and not sometimes as just Afghanis fighting for the removal of the foreign invader from their land?


The war in Afghanistan has eroded Canada’s international reputation and has created more terrorism than it has eliminated. I would hope by now that more Canadians would be able to see that there are more effective international tools than war, despite the mad government of our southern neighbors being unable to focus on anything else.


- David Crowe