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War in Afghanistan: Articles, essays and the such
Submitted by Mike McGregor on November 5, 2006 - 5:31am.
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I thought I'd start a thread to highlight any interesting articles I might come across on the subject of the war in Afghanistan, Canada's role there, and other related subjects. I'd encourage everyone to share any interesting articles they might find by posting a link and maybe a summary and their thoughts (or if its CC or GNU/GFDL post the whole damn thing!).
Also, check out these related threads:
Canadian occupation of Afghanistan
Oct 28th Day of Action... What's the verdict?
The National Day of Action for Afghanistan Oct 28th
No votes yet
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Canadian Forces keeping Injuries in Afghanistan quiet
"a great many Canadian soldiers are being injured in Afghanistan. And we’re not hearing about it."
-30-
Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..."
-Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
Afghanistan Casualty Counter
I just came across this tonight. It's a casualty counter similar to the one from iraqbodycount.org. This one counts Canadian Military deaths in Afghanistan.
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..." -Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
American War Resisters in Canada
These stories aren't about Canada's role in Afghanistan, but I thought this was as good a place as any to park them...
also, check out Iraq Veterans Against War and a Canadian group out Toronto called War Resisters Support Campaign
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..." -Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
statement by Revolutionary Assoc. of Women of Afghanistan
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has issued this statement (December 10, 2006):
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=49&ItemID=11619
Some excerpts:
"The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) strongly supports the anti-war movement which grows day by day all around the world and becomes a strong force against the US and her Allies' war-mongering policies....We would like to declare to all freedom-loving, anti-invaders, and anti-fundamentalist individuals and groups that as long as we don't form a united movement against the fundamentalists and their foreign masters, we will not be in a position to break the chain of oppression and tyranny. We announced on the first day of the US invasion that there is not one example in history where a foreign force brings freedom to another nation. Only the people of Afghanistan themselves can gain these values....Traitors, country-betrayers, and dark minds are in control of our nation's fate and our country has sunk into a calamity. Mr. Karzai and his foreign guardians, who have invested in fundamentalists for many years, today have given key posts in the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government, to the most infamous and bloody elements of the Northern Alliance and other savage bands. With the passage of time, the ring of these traitors is increasing. The evil men who caused the April 1992 tragedy [i.e., the end of secular government and the establishment of an "Islamic State" in Afghanistan], instead of being sued, have so much authority in the country that through the parliament they shamelessly announce this infelicitous day as a public holiday. In this manner they ridicule the people, the majority of whom, according to a survey of national and international human rights defending organizations, want the prosecution and punishment of these national traitors."
Provincial Reconstruction Teams
Here's a mixed bag of links regarding PRTs. Some are .pdf files some are proper links. I'd just caution everyone to consider the source of info from each given link.
Link 1 (pdf) I don't remember where this is from...
Link 2(essay) http://www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/
Link 3 (CDN GOV site)
Link 4 (pdf) http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr152.html
Link 5 (pdf) -from Save the Children
Link 6 http://www.globalsecurity.org/
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..." -Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
Provincial Occupation Teams
That first link makes a crucial point:
“It would do Canadians…well to understand that PRTs are not peacekeeping missions: they exist to extend central government influence throughout a nearly post-apocalyptic feudal land and [to] combat insurgency using a variety of lethal and non-lethal tools” (p. 62)
One of the most dangerous features of this particular weapon in the arsenal of the occupiers is the fact that it lends itself to misrepresentation, as some kind of humanitarian phenomenon, or democracy-promotion project, rather than an instrument of political control. The article helps dispel that kind of misinterpretation, even if it does so in a way that is uncritical in intent.
Francisco Juarez
I just caught an interview with this guy on CTV News-net. He's and ex-canadian forces soldier who got himself discharged because he had misgivings about the Afghanistan misson. Apparently, he's the first.
It should be noted though, that as a RESERVE officer CADET, (I think) he would of had to volunteer for service in Afghanistan, and as best as I can tell, he was not facing deployment. (He may have just been an ex-Navy guy regreting a transfer to the Infantry. I dunno...) Still, he offers some intresting perspectives (in the Newsnet interview anyways).
Maybe as time passes, we'll see more war resisters come foward.
here's a few links:
http://operationobjection.org/francisco-juarez.html
http://vancouver.urbanmixer.com/events/afghanistan-i-choose-not-to-go-francisco-juarez-speaks
And something similar in regards to the US Military war resisters.
http://www.warresisters.org/
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..." -Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
Mo'Money-fo'-mo'tanks
It looks as If Canadian Officials are looking at the possibility of purchasing another 100 tanks from the Germans and Swiss armies. The Canadian forces currently field about 66 Leopard 1 tanks (with some 17 in the process of being sent to Afghanistan. Of those 5 are there already).
The tanks that they would be buying would be Leopard 2 tanks. Although they have the same name, they're really completely different tanks then the Leopard 1s they would be replacing, with the Leopard 2 carrying a larger main gun, thicker armour, a larger engine and a completely new design.
From the stories linked below, it looks like the Leopard 2s are being considered because the plan to replace the Leopard 1s with a vehicle known as a "Mobile Gun System" (which you Counter-Stryker folks are probably familiar with) fell through... i.e.. the MGS didn't work so good... I guess the funding that was set aside to purchase the MGSs would be applied to buy the Leopard 2s if the Canadian Forces decided to go that route. So how much does a pre-loved Leopard 2 cost? $350,000 is apparently a low-ball estimate, with a brand-spanking new model straight off the showroom floor going for $6,000,000 each.
CTV News Story
CanWest Story
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..." -Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
new developments
There's been some developments in this story over the past couple of days. The Canadian Forces are planning to lease 20 German Leopard 2 A6M tanks for use in Afghanistan. The leased tanks are meant to be an interim solution until similar tanks can be purchased and delivered. Apparently, the lack of an air conditioning system in the Canadian Tanks currently deployed to Afghanistan was enough of a concern (or a convenient one) to prompt the decision to acquire more modern tanks. The leased tanks won't be delivered in time to be used by the troops currently in Afghanistan, who will have to use the older Leopard C2s that are already there.
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..."
-Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
It's official
Gordon O'Connor announced today that the Canadian Forces Will be purchasing as 80 used Leopard 2A4 and 20 Leopard 2A6 tanks from the Netherlands and leasing another 20 from Germany. The tanks leased from Germany are expected to be in Afghanistan with the next troop rotation this summer, while the 80 Leopard 2A4s will be upgraded to 2A6s.
-30-
Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..."
-Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
New tanks axe LAV MGS deal
According to the Freeps today, as a direct result of the recent deal to acquire tanks for the Canadian Forces from The Netherlands and Germany, a deal worth $700million with General Dynamics Ground Systems Canada for 66 Mobile Gun Systems (based on the LAV III/Stryker family of vehicles) has been axed. The article goes on to say that the deal for the new tanks will cost a total of $650 million. I don't know if this means a net savings of $50million, or if the $700million from the MGS deal is being put against the new tanks plus an additional $650million. It will be interesting to see what the final cost turns out to be.
Sat, April 14, 2007
A move to send heavier battle tanks to Afghanistan has nixed a London firm's contract.
By NORMAN DE BONO, FREE PRESS BUSINESS REPORTER
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Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..."
-Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
hmm...
Now that I think of it, The deal with the Canadian Forces for the MGS has been all but dead for a long time... I'm not really sure why the Freeps is reporting this as such a recent develpoment or as a direct result of the deal for the new tanks. The Forces recommended that the program be cancelled late last year. Maybe the cancellation was just recently finalised od confirmed. who knows?
-30-
Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..."
-Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
-=There is no Cabal, Long live the Cabal=-
My Photos
The Dominion: "Dust in the Eyes of the World"
The Dominion:
Dust in the Eyes of the World:
Feminists debate logic of "humanitarian" war
by Anna Carastathis
This article seems to touch on the realities of the Afghan War's in regards to its effects on Afghani women and their rights and security, vs. the promises that removing the Taliban would enhance and promote the human rights of Afghani women. It also touches on a reluctance to resist, or a slowness to resist a war that was billed and spun as a humanitarian endeavor...
-30-
Mike.
"We only wear black, but that's just until something darker comes along..." -Anonymous Black Bloc Member.
Wonderful Insight from Roksana Bahramitash and Anna Carastathis
Bahramitash questions the primary reason, which has been repeated to death, for Canada's involvment in Afghanistan if there is no evidence to support such an argument.
“What is the historical evidence to show that war has ever liberated women?”
"She says that the notion that the US and Canada are emancipating Afghan women by bombing them is a dangerous fiction produced by a “war propaganda machine” that feminists need to undermine."
I also appreciate her belief with respect to liberal feminists and their neoconservative agenda.
"She worries that some feminists have forgotten the historical roots of the North American feminist movement in anti-militarist and anti-racist struggles, and are now “supporting a neoconservative agenda.”
Thanks for the post Mike.
Jeff
**Edit**
I wanted to add one more crucially important point that Roksana emphasized.
"Neoliberalism [at home] and neo-conservatism [abroad] are part of the same package.” To see this, Bahramitash suggests that we need a feminist analysis that sees that race, class and war are inseparable factors in women’s experiences."