11-01-06, 8:05 a.m.

[The following article appeared in the November 1-15 edition of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist paper. It was written by the paper's Vancouver, British Columbia bureau]

THE U.S.-LED occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are increasingly recognized as disasters, even at the top levels of the military. General Richard Dannatt, the highest-ranking military officer in Britain, has warned that the occupation troops in Iraq must be withdrawn soon, since their unwelcome presence is exacerbating security problems.

Here in Canada, ever-wider circles of the public are calling for withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan. The latest to raise their voices are a number of family members of the troops. The first Canadian soldier to quit the military rather than eventually serve in Afghanistan, Francisco Juarez, is currently touring the country speaking at events to make the same demand.

With the support of the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the Canadian Peace Alliance, the broad Quebec peace movement represented by the Collectif Échèc à la guerre, the Council of Canadians, and many other groups, rallies are being held in dozens of cities and towns on October 28, all to press the federal government to withdraw the troops now.

At a meeting of its Central Committee on the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 weekend, the Communist Party of Canada condemned the imperialist foreign policy of the Harper Tories, 'who are planning to involve Canada in supporting ever more dangerous and predatory military campaigns.' The CPC resolution warned against the 'threat of new, dangerous aggressions by the U.S. against Iran and Syria, potentially sparking a much broader conflict in the Middle East.' Welcoming the growth of the anti-war movement, the CPC resolution called for the greatest possible mobilization on October 28 as 'an important step to build a broad and powerful movement to defeat the Harper Tories in the next federal election.'

Despite the push by the corporate media, Tory politicians, and the top military brass, millions of Canadians remain convinced that the troops should come home. Most opinion polls show that at least half of respondents hold this view.

Grassroots indications are even more powerful. In the Vancouver area, for example, the StopWar.ca peace coalition has been conducting regular street polls, asking passersby to vote yes or no to the simple question: should Canadian troops be pulled out of Afghanistan? In every neighbourhood, the 'yes' votes are at least 75%, in some areas as high as 90%. The results might be somewhat different in other parts of the country, but the bottom line is that the war is deeply unpopular.

As Murray Dobbin wrote recently in the Tyee online webzine, 'This military engagement will go down in Canadian history as one of the most shameful betrayals of Canadian soldiers in our history. Canadian troops are dying because neither their supreme commander nor their prime minister has the courage to acknowledge what is actually happening. They are dying so Stephen Harper can prove himself to George W. Bush.'

The Senlis Council, a Brussels-based security and development policy group, says Canada's strategy is 'to unquestioningly accept America's fundamentally flawed policy approach in southern Afghanistan, thereby jeopardising the success of military operations in the region and the stabilisation, reconstruction and development mission objectives.' For example, 'Operation Medusa' was a complete waste of resources, and lives, both Afghan and Canadian. This operation drove some 20,000 Afghans out of their homes, generating even more anger and resistance.

Captain Leo Docherty, of the Scots Guards, the former aide-de-camp to the commander of the British task force in southern Afghanistan resigned in September, describing a similar campaign in southern Helmand province as 'a textbook case of how to screw up a counter-insurgency. All those people whose homes have been destroyed and sons killed are going to turn against the British.'

Canadian soldiers are making refugees of the people they are supposed to be helping. According to the Senlis Council, there are between ten and fifteen refugee camps in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, each with up to 10,000 people, largely the result of Canadian and British conventional war tactics. They are receiving 'little or no help from relief agencies.'

Canada has now spent over $4 billion on its Afghan mission - 90 percent of which has been used in the military conflict. Even the development aid that has been spent is often resented for the way in which it is wasted. According to University of Manitoba professor John Ryan 'a recent report for the Overseas Development Institute, by Ashraf Ghani, the chancellor of Kabul University and former Karzai finance minister, has stated that in 2002 about 90 percent of the $1 billion spent on 400 aid projects was wasted.'

Many Canadians still say that they are reluctant to 'cut and run' without a strategy to help Afghanistan recover from decades of conflict. But there are other alternatives. According to retired international affairs professor Jack Warnock of Regina, Canada should 'Withdraw all military forces from Afghanistan and withdraw from all projects being sponsored by the U.S. government and NATO [and then] work within the UN General Assembly to develop a new project for Afghanistan ... completely separate from any US or NATO project.'

From People's Voice