Roger Annis, Vancouver
The commander of Canada's armed forces, General Rick
Hillier, is speaking out boldly in support of the US-led imperialist war effort in the Middle East and Asia. He is spending the summer months on a lecture circuit as the point man of the Canadian government's new, more aggressive imperial foreign policy. Part of that role is to prepare the country for more deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.
Two thousand Canadian soldiers are on their way to Kandahar in Afghanistan. There they will join the front lines of an expanding war led by the US against those resisting the foreign occupation of that country.
At a press conference on July 13 to announce the Kandahar mission, Hillier told reporters of his views of the July 7 bombings in London and the Canadian role in Afghanistan. He described the perpetrators of the London bombings as "detestable murderers and scumbags", and likened them to those opposing imperialist occupation in Afghanistan.
"They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties", he said. "We are going to Afghanistan to actually take down the folks that are trying to blow up men and women... We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people."
Hillier described the targets of the Canadian military as a "ball of snakes", made up of terrorists, drug dealers and other "rogue" elements. His message was that it's time to toss away the myth of Canada as a "peacekeeper" in the world and pursue a far more aggressive foreign policy.
Hillier believes that Canadian military policy must do more to facilitate and promote investment opportunities for Canadian capitalists. In a speech on July 22, he likened Canada's military interventions to recent trips by Canadian political and business leaders to promote Canadian investments in "emerging markets".
Retired general and former head of the UN forces in Bosnia, Lewis Mackenzie, wrote in the August 1 Toronto Globe and Mail that the Canadian military's "role is to kill as efficiently as possible once the political order has been given rather than participate in 'peacekeeping' missions that rarely meet the criteria for success".
Dramatic shift in policy
The generals are speaking on behalf of a government that is carrying out a dramatic shift in foreign policy. Their comments have received enthusiastic support from the mouthpieces of corporate Canada. "Canadians are going to war", enthused a July 16 editorial in the Globe and Mail. "Like it or not, we are all in this together. Bravo to [Hillier] for saying it."
Prime Minister Paul Martin and public safety minister Anne McLellan have boosted the war course with dire warnings that Canada will become a target of terrorist bombings similar to those in London.
The groundwork for the new course was laid out by the government earlier this year. In May, it released a policy statement entitled "Canada's International Policy" that argued why Canada must become a more aggressive imperial power in the world, and how it will achieve that.
Then in late June, the financial side of the policy was approved when the government passed its much-delayed budget. It contains a massive boost in military spending, adding C$12.8 billion over the next five years. (Planned military spending for 2005 is $13.4 billion.)
Prior to the new international policy statement, the government had already enacted "anti- terrorist" laws that give the police and courts vast powers to spy on, arrest, and indefinitely detain those whom it targets.
New powers also take away rights and protections of people living in Canada who are not citizens.
Police threats or intimidation against people of Muslim faith or Middle Eastern origin have become commonplace in Canada since 2001. Some have been deported, and there are currently five men who have sat in jail for several years, or longer, with no charges laid.
The public inquiry into the case of Maher Arar has shed light on how Ottawa applies its new powers. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was kidnapped in New York in 2002 by US officials and then flown to Syria, his country of birth, where he was detained and tortured for nearly a year.
The Canadian government and its embassy officials in Syria did nothing to protest or reverse Arar's kidnapping, and only moved to request his return to Canada after a growing public campaign led by his wife shamed them into action.
Conditions in Afghanistan
Although several thousand Canadian soldiers and political staff will soon be occupying Afghanistan, there is virtually no newspaper reporting in Canada on conditions there. The few articles that appear are puff pieces by "embedded" reporters in US or Canadian army patrols. This is no coincidence.
Four years after the occupation began, following a short but bloody war, the country remains mired in a social and humanitarian disaster. Millions remain dependent on aid. According to the World Food Program, at least 6.5 million people out of a population of 21 million are dependent on food aid, and famine is a recurring risk in the most remote parts of the country.
Only 25% of the country's population has access to safe drinking water and sanitation. (At least eight people died of cholera, a water-borne disease, in Kabul in June. Yet Kabul is the one claimed success story of the occupying powers.)
Of the $13 billion promised to Afghanistan in aid by countries around the world, only $3.1 has been set aside for reconstruction or social programs. The rest is earmarked for police and military spending. Two million refugees still live in camps in neighbouring countries, while hundreds of thousands are living homeless or in makeshift accommodation within the country.
Only 40% of Afghan children are vaccinated against disease. One fifth of children die before the age of five. Life expectancy is 44 years of age. There is one doctor in Afghanistan per 6000 people.
Violence and lawlessness by occupying forces and their onetime allies in the former Taliban is rampant. As a result, many aid agencies have withdrawn from the country.
As in Haiti, the occupation forces in Afghanistan are allied with many of the most right-wing elements in the society. Socially progressive movements were largely destroyed during the years of US support to the rightist forces that came to form the Taliban government.
There are some 18,000 US occupation troops in Afghanistan, and another 5000 from other imperialist countries. The latter are serving under the command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Canadian soldiers will soon be the largest military contingent in the NATO command. Until now, the Canadian soldiers have served in the relatively safe confines of Kabul and the surrounding area. In plunking themselves down in Kandahar, they are taking their fight to an area of the country where opposition to occupation is deeper.
Part of Hillier's speaking circuit is aimed at preparing the country for this. He is polishing up his answers to the difficult questions that will be asked when Canadian soldiers start to die.
As Hillier's recent belligerent comments indicate, the Canadian capitalist rulers are providing increasingly open support for a broader campaign, led by Washington, to assert imperialist control over the Middle East region and its vast oil resources.
[Abridged from <http://www.socialistvoice.com>.]
From Green Left Weekly, September 7, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.