A New Tactic

The controversy on the Afghanistan mission continues.

The pieces of attack and defence had been set up for all parties in Canada. NDP and Bloc Québécois are totally against the mission and NDP actually calls for the troops to withdraw. Tories are all for the mission and have been successful in lengthening the mission into 2009. And Liberals…..well we were never sure where they stood in the matter. After all it was the Liberals who were all for the mission in the first place and sent the troops to Afghanistan. And now when the mission is not going too well and the Liberals are in opposition, they can’t actually attack the Tories without questioning their own policy.

So they have come out with a new tactic. Martin (who was the force behind the decision to send troops to Afghanistan) is saying that the nature of the mission has changed in Afghanistan has changed from what it was originally sent into that country for. This is true to the extent that all political parties are a party to the quaffing and dithering on the nature of the mission, but for the Liberals to take up this argument and try and label themselves as the good guys is truly stupid.

The nature of the mission is still not defined anywhere (except by NDP who want troops out of there) and it was never defined to being with. Martin says that the troops were sent on a “reconstruction” mission. That’s not true. The original mission of the NATO troops was to provide security to the volatile regions. And when the volatility was contained, the diplomats and re-constructers would come in and help re-build Afghanistan. Not the troops. But, unfortunately, the volatility never ended. And the troops got no or very little support from our Liberals government and now just a show of support from the Tories have had to re-build the country and deal with a growing insurgency.

So, for Liberals to turn this around and say we went in there with a different reason than why Tories are staying there for, is disingenuous and the Liberals should be roasted for it. I am glad that Jack Layton (NDP) is doing just that i.e. calling the bullsh*t of the Liberals.