Peter G. Prontzos: The 101 Canadians who have been killed in Afghanistan believed they were serving our country, and for that they deserve our respect and gratitude... But there is an awful truth that we tend to avoid, a truth that must be proclaimed if we are to end the killing on all sides of this bloody conflict. The truth is that those 101 brave Canadians died for nothing... More accurately, they died for a series of lies.
One lie is that Canada is there to help the 'democratic' Hamid Karzai. But the fact is that his government was installed by the Bush regime, and that it is both incompetent and riddled with corruption from the drug trade. A related lie is that this is a war for women's rights...
Another lie is that it is possible to win a victory over the various tribes and political factions fighting the occupiers. British and American military officials are finally admitting that they are losing ground, and the bloodshed will only increase as the war drags on.
The biggest lie of all is that Canadians are being killed in the fight against terrorism. The Taliban did not attack the United States on September 11, and it is not the only group fighting against the US-led occupation. Moreover, even the US Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that Bush's invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have led to more anti-Americanism and more terrorism, not less. Every time innocent civilians are killed or a wedding party is bombed, more people take up arms against the US-backed forces, or support those who do.
In reality, Canadians are dying in Afghanistan in order to please the Bush regime by aiding its attempt to dominate the Middle East for its own geostrategic purposes, especially that of controlling the oil in the region.
In addition, there are some in the Canadian military who despise our peacekeeping tradition and would rather that we adopted the mindless war-fighting mentality of the American military.
