The Province of Afghanistan
I have a new position on Afghanistan. I don't think we should withdraw our troops - ever. It is my opinion now that there will never be a time when we can safely leave Afghanistan to the Afghans, so we should just stay the course and continue to send troops there as long as Canada is around to do it.
It is the only way our efforts to date will not be in vain.
Look, I'm not being facetious here. I'm being quite serious. We helped invade Afghanistan, we upped the original mission of Peacekeeping, not that there was a peace to keep, to aggressively seeking out the Taliban and we've learned that whenever we pull back, the Taliban just fills in the spot where we were.
Let's face it, Afghanistan is ours for the taking now. We've invested a lot of lives, money, and time in it and I don't think we should risk losing our investment - ever.
Because that's exactly what will happen when we pull out. Afghanistan will fall back to its old ways and it'll be like we were never there. Either that, or the next guys to move in and do what we've been doing will be the ones to reap all the benefit from our efforts because they'll be the ones who'll say, "You know what? We should just keep on keepin' on until everybody else in the world forgets that Afghanistan used to be a sovereign country. We've invested too many lives, and too much money and time to risk losing our investment by pulling out - ever."
So there. It's my new position on Afghanistan and I'm not kidding. To the Left, I say, sure, you wouldn't have invaded at all and I agree with you on that front. But you weren't smart enough to be the government and we did invade. Now, having done that, it would be wrong to pretend that we don't have a responsibility now and forever to see this thing through. And since we've learned from experience that Afghanistan just goes back to being Afghanistan the minute you turn your back on it, I think it is in their best interests and ours if we just bite the bullet, so to speak, and consider Afghanistan that place where we invest lives, money and time - as long as we have lives, money and time to invest.
Taxes be damned - this is a moral imperative.
And let's face it - we always will have lives, money and time to invest in Afghanistan. What is it they say every time a soldier dies in Afghanistan? Something like we lose more people to traffic accidents on the TransCanada every minute? Or is it something about an angel getting its wings...
Over time, maybe we could even turn Afghanistan into an eco-tourism resort. You know, train the locals to work in the service industry, etc, so we can take vacations there to escape our damp cold or humid heat - season depending. It could be like a giant spa/detox: "Yeah. My boss is sending me to Afghanistan to dry out". That sort of thing.
Seriously. I mean we're there. We keep getting reports that we're making progress. I think we should just relax into it and consider Afghanistan to be this huge worth it investment for all Canadians. Oh, and Afghans, too, of course. Because who wouldn't rather be making Canadian wages working in the service industry than trying to eke out an existence in the desert?
I mean - c'mon. Win/Win, I say. We just need a government with the balls to take this one on for Canadians - longterm. Like, forever.
Who's up for it?
