The NDP sides with the Taliban
tagged Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, Ban Ki-moon, Canada, Jack Layton and Taliban
According to Ban Ki-moon, Jack Layton is one of many who seem only too eager to repeat the mistakes of history by abandoning Afghanistan.
And what would they be abandoning? Apparently a nation on its way to turning things around.
The Afghan National Army is enjoying battlefield successes. Thanks to Afghan farmers, Afghanistan is achieving self-sufficiency in agriculture. There is safe water for many, and a widespread immunization program. There are more women in the Afghan parliament than in Canada (28% in Afghanistan versus 21% in Canada).
But none of this matters. That all these successes would be undone the moment the Taliban were to regain power does not matter. That soldiers and civilians from Canada and from around the world have sacrificed so much to push the Taliban back and show the Afghan people just what life could be like does not matter.
That 9/11 could happen all over again does not matter.
The Taliban will win. The Taliban must win. According to Jack Layton, it is a historical inevitability, and no effort mustered by Canadian soldiers and no sacrifice borne by their families can change what must be.
There is a pretty distinct line between legitimate criticism of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan and openly advocating for Canada’s enemies to defeat our troops in the field. Jack Layton (and presumably the rest of his party) is way over the line, on the latter of the two sides of it listed above.
