Pressed for time today but noting Jack Granatstein has a good article in today's Old and Male about the issues surrounding Canada's exit from Afghanistan scheduled for 2011. Given that it will be the year of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 in 2011, what will our exit say about what we have learned as a society about the sources and implications of Islamic extremist militancy? And what have we learned about Canada's ability to react to the dangers that such militancy poses? Is it reasonable or even fair to have an army with only 20,000 soldiers given the demands placed upon them? Is there another strategy other than occupying Afghanistan which would address the situation better?
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Comments
Seanie - July 21, 2009 12:41 PM
In so far as "what we have learned as a society about the sources and implications of Islamic extremist militancy":
One can hope that we (collective western non-muslim dominant country "we") have learned that you cannot defeat militant extermists, whose entire militancy is based on the "west have caused our sufferage" mantra, simply by killing a lot of them. WHen one is killed, another angry "opressed" youth filles the ranks, if not two.
Whether we agree with their claims of opression or not, diplomacy needs to be stressed in future before things come to a boiling point, and a diplomacy that takes into account their historical outlook on life and how people interact, which does not match our own necessarily.
You cannot get honey from a beehive by poking holes in it without risk of being stung.