Realities Collide at Halifax 'War Conference'Inter Press Service: An imposing 'United States of America'-emblazoned aircraft greeted visitors on the tarmac of Halifax International Airport as more than 250 of the Western world's top military leaders and their brain trust descended on the city for the inaugural Halifax International Security Forum.
Co-sponsored by the government of Canada and the US-based German Marshall Fund think tank, over 60 percent of the attendees hailed from these host nations for what is being dubbed a World Economic Forum-style conference for militarists.
Announcing the Forum last July, German Marshall Fund President Craig Kennedy called it 'a step in the process of changing the conversation' about Canada's role in the 'trans-Atlantic community,' toward a recognition of its being a top-tier power in its own right that is worthy of a seat at the table with the globe's most powerful war-fighting nations...
Although Halifax is known as a pro-military community, outside a small group of protesters denounced the forum, which they called a 'war conference' that is being held to 'work out the justification for the global expansion of NATO and to extend the ongoing illegal occupation of Afghanistan.' ... A larger protest featured former Afghan parliamentarian Malalai Joya, who has been touring North America promoting her new book, A Woman Among Warlords.
An outspoken critic of the ongoing occupation of her country, Joya has called for NATO to withdraw its forces. No Afghans participated in the Forum itself, and Joya was forced to deliver her speech while separated from the Forum venue by a wall of police...
Joya told IPS correspondent Chris Arsenault that 'The war in Afghanistan has fostered terrorism, even though the stated goal is to fight it. The biggest beneficiaries of the conflict have been extremist groups who take advantage of legitimate grievances against NATO.'
