The following open letter to Canadian PM Stephen Harper was issued on September 8 by Ken Georgetti president of the Canadian Labour Congress the largest trade union federation in Canada representing 3 million workers. In May Harper's minority Conservative government barely persuaded MPs — in a 149-145 vote — to approve an extension of Canada's participation in NATO's US-led counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan until 2009. A July poll indicated that 52% of voters oppose Canadian troops being deployed in Afghanistan. Of the 20000 NATO-led foreign troops in Afghanistan 2300 are from Canada. By September 10 33 Canadians had been killed in Afghanistan since 2002 — more than any other NATO country except Britain (40) and the US (272). Half of the Canadian fatalities have occurred in the past three months as Canadian troops have joined British and Dutch forces in operations against Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan.
In recent months Canadians have been the recipients of a fierce selling-job on our military's role in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has claimed our mission is both honourable and just and I have no doubt this echoes the sentiments of our troops.
Prime Minister Harper has said Canada won't "cut and run" in Afghanistan and suggested other "weak-kneed" parliamentarians fall in line. Hordes of pundits have agreed and suggested dissenters are damaging our troops' morale and Canada's role in the "War on Terrorism".
Canadians have seen this movie before. It went something like: "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists". Currently that view of foreign policy earns about 36% support of the US electorate. Surely Canadians deserve a better explanation about why we've committed to our largest military deployment in 50 years.
Simply put prime minister whose interests are we defending in Afghanistan?
I am told it is a democratically-elected government engaged in a war with "brutal insurgents". Many human rights groups have begged to differ however and it is time Canadians got a fuller appreciation of this story.
Human Rights Watch authored a chilling report called Blood Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity. The Senalis Council in Britain followed with its own study Canada in Kandahar: No Peace to Keep. Carol Off produced a thought-provoking documentary on CBC's The National in March 2006 entitled "The Warlords Take Office".
All of these studies reveal disturbing information most Afghanis know well and when the lives of Canadian soldiers are on the line it's best not to mince words.
At the moment Canada is sending its troops to support a parliament that is already half-dominated by drug-trafficking warlords many of whom have committed atrocities against their own people during Afghanistan's civil war in the early 1990s.
These warlords — like Abdul Rashid Dostum who is now Afghanistan's deputy minister of defence — killed thousands of innocent Afghanis and now drape themselves in the language of democracy.
Making matters worse billions of dollars in development funds pledged by nations worldwide have gone missing while palatial homes and posh developments are under construction in Kabul many of which are connected to warlords in parliament.
The US military strategy adopted by NATO hasn't brought peace reduced poverty stopped heroin production or helped reconstruct Afghanistan.
Over 1600 Afghanis have died in the last four months alone. The heroin trade is fielding a bumper crop. Afghanis are mired in terrible poverty while brothels have sprung up in abundance to service foreign contractors in Kabul.
In these conditions it is hardly surprising that an Afghan resistance movement has emerged. These forces which include Taliban elements refer to [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai as "the mayor of Kabul" or "assistant to the American ambassador". They are increasingly supported by Afghanis grown weary from NATO and Karzai's broken promises.
That's right prime minister. At the moment our military isn't fighting the forces of corruption violence and the heroin trade. We're supporting them and this is never told to the thousands of Canadian soldiers sent to the battlegrounds of Kandahar.
But don't take my word for it. Talk to Malalai Joya the Afghan parliamentarian who has faced death threats for daring to spotlight the abuses perpetrated daily by warlords in the Karzai regime.
Prime minister, I fully support our troops — that's why I don't want them engaged in a fight that only benefits a government chock full of despots and heroin-runners. I urge you again to heed the words of Malalai Joya who had this to say about the prospects for peace in her country: "The situation in Afghanistan and conditions for women will not change positively until the warlords have been disarmed and both the pro-US and anti-US terrorists are removed from the political scene in Afghanistan. And it is the responsibility of the Afghan people to accomplish this goal."