President Barack Obama signed a slew of bills into law during the lame-duck session of Congress and was dubbed the "Comeback Kid" amid a flurry of fawning press reports. In the hail of this surprise bipartisanship, though, the one issue over which Democrats and Republicans always agree, war, was completely ignored. The war in Afghanistan is now the longest war in U.S. history, and 2010 has seen the highest number of U.S. and NATO soldiers killed.
afghan war
What George Galloway's successful tour of Canada proved
It lasted over 18 months, but Jason Kenney's attempt to ban George Galloway ended in complete and utter failure. On November 27, the former British MP, who was declared inadmissible to Canada in March 2009, joined hundreds of supporters on Parliament Hill in Ottawa where he completed an 11-city, 12-day pan-Canadian speaking tour. In just under two weeks, Galloway sprinted across the country at break-neck speed, addressing in person nearly 8,000 people at sold-out meetings, reaching hundreds of thousands more through wall-to-wall media coverage.
"As any bookseller will tell you, the book you try to ban always ends up on the best-seller list," Galloway quipped in Ottawa. "Thanks to Jason Kenney, I have drawn thousands to my speaking events all across Canada."
Afghanistan: The crucible for reorienting Canadian foreign policy
Operation Apollo, Operation Athena, Operation Archer, Operation Accius, Operation Altair... since Canada first entered the war on Afghanistan in 2001 the list of extensions, renewals and "spin-offs" has gone on and on and on. Originally scheduled to end in 2003, Canada's involvement in this imperialist aggression threatens to continue until 2014 if Prime Minister Stephen Harper gets his way.
Afghanistan has been the central preoccupation of Canadian foreign policy over the past decade. It has also been a main focus of peace movement activity. Mobilizations against the war in Afghanistan have not been nearly as spectacular as those against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The build up was slower, and it took more time to locate a basis of unity upon which to build mobilizations.
Afghanistan and Canada: The 'disconnect' on both sides of the wire
"Disconnect" is the term that keeps popping into my mind when I think about Afghanistan and the events unfolding here.
We all talk about this term. We can apply it to almost everything at times, from the relationship with our food, or lack thereof, to the goods we buy and where they come from, our political system and our involvement in it, and the consequences of our lifestyle on the planet as a whole to name but a few.
The term is also incredibly descriptive of the happenings here in Afghanistan, unfortunately.
The destructiveness of war-mongering
White poppies. Sometimes something rings a little bell amid the gloom, like a bird singing after a catastrophe, or a light in a raging storm. It's a symbol of peace, first introduced in Britain by the Co-operative Women's Guild in 1936. The notion that hope for peace might live, however, is apparently so outlandish that the symbol is little known and only makes rare appearances, as it did in P.E.I. this Remembrance Day, and always seems to upset someone.
The Afghan War diary data -- an initial look
Wikileaks allowed us to map Afghan war deaths. A pattern has emerged.
