Afghanistan: mission impossible

I am very upset by the commitment of Canada to an impossible NATO mission in Afghanistan, now projected for five or even ten years into an undetermined future. At the moment the official commitment is only until 2009, but government reiterates that Canada will not cut and run — see: PM Stephen Harper at the UN 21/9/2006, Afghan President Hammid Karzai in Ottawa, 22/9/2006.

Meanwhile as casualties rise, an abundant crop of opium poppies still nourishes the narco-economy, corruption abounds at all levels of state, while Taliban, al Qaeda ("the Base"), unlimited arms and money pass through porous frontiers with impunity.

NATO Supreme Allied Commander General James Jones (U.S.) has called for additional commitments of troops, helicopters, and transport planes for battle in the dangerous Kandahar region where Canadian forces are deployed. Canada, with 2200 troops in the country, has now pledged to increase effectives to 2500.

Afghanistan is now the source of 92% of illegal opium in the world. UN Office on Drugs and Crime 2 September 2006, reported in NYT 20 September 2006

NATO Supreme Allied Commander General James Jones (U.S.) has called for additional commitments of troops, helicopters, and transport planes for battle in the dangerous Kandahar region where Canadian forces are deployed (with British and Dutch). Canada, with 2200 troops in the country, has now pledged to increase effectives to 2500.

A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) of 250 Canadian soldiers is working to restore the authority of the central government in Kabul, as well assisting the rebuilding of essential infrastructure. Taliban and their supporters melt away, blending into the local population in the aftermath of combat — they are virtually undetectable without help.

Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier arrived in Afghanistan on 28 September 2006 to inspect the southern sector in the aftermath of Operation Medusa vs Taliban insurgency.
CTV's Paul Workman, reporting from Kandahar, said Hillier addressed the daily challenges faced by Canadian troops. "He spoke of the difficulties in fighting the Taliban, an enemy that can blend into the villages, uses guerrilla tactics, suicide bombs and bombs buried on the side of the roads," Workman told CTV Newsnet.
"He said it's very difficult for Canadians to deal with that and you just can't go into the villages and start shooting indiscriminately."
ctv.ca news 29/9/2006

The cost to Canada of Afghanistan so far has been $2.3 billion (Sept. 2001-May 2006). Ongoing military expenditure there, in men and equipment, is enormous, a considerable drain on available resources. Another $1 billion in development aid has been pledged over the next 10 years.
ctv.ca news 22/9/2006

Public opinion of the mission expressed in numerous polls has been increasingly unfavourable. Decima Research found that 59% of respondents agreed that Canadian soldiers "are dying for a cause we cannot win", while just 34% disagreed. Results were generally similar across the country.
[current poll taken 8-18 September 2006; Toronto Star from CP, 2/10/2006]

Several deaths have been caused by so-called "friendly fire".
How well are these forces presently equipped and supported for the difficult terrain and conditions of guerrilla warfare?

A UN report has suggested links between Iraqi and Afghan guerillas. New types of bombs that are used in Iraq show up soon later in Afghanistan.
NYT, 8/10/2006

Toronto Star reporting from Kandahar:
"Two Canadian soldiers died yesterday and two were wounded in an ambush of rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire as they guarded a road that has become a prime target for insurgent attacks. ... The Canadians were attacked while patrolling an unfinished four-kilometre road to link the Panjwaii district about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar with a main highway. Soldiers in the region say there just aren't enough of them properly to clear the area of insurgents who've stepped up attacks since a major three-week offensive against the Taliban last month was declared a success by NATO. Six Canadians have died along the unfinished road or the 16-square-kilometre area around it since late September."
[TS, from CP, Reuters, 15/10/2006]

Andy Warhol: Stars, Deaths and Disasters 1962 - 1964

Supernova, now at the Art Gallery of Ontario (until 22 October), is an assembly of more than twenty silkscreen images and paintings from the sixties, produced by Andy Warhol at his Factory in New York City. This is not the familiar pop-art Warhol of Campbell's soup and Brillo boxes fame. Rather it is of an artist obsessed with celebrity, glamour, sexuality, disaster, catastrophe, and inexorably death. Juxtaposed with Troy Donahue, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, and Jacqueline Kennedy are scenes of horrific actual car crashes, poisonings, and suicides, along with frequent stark imagery of the electric chair.
Essential part of the presentation is spoken commentary by David Cronenberg, and by many others — critics, actors, some of whom knew the artist and worked with him. Placed in context the multiple iconographic work and films make a surprising and disturbing impact. When John Giorno (poet) asked the artist: "What are you working on now?" — the answer was: "Death".
Projected on the walls of each room is a film, each a curiosity in its own right, including Empire (an eight-hour static, almost eery viewing of the Empire State Building), Couch (candid everyday sexuality at the Factory), and Blow Job (the sublime face of fellatio), all created in 1964.

PBS recently broadcast a four-hour study of the artist's genius:
Andy Warhol: a documentary film (USA, 2006)
dir. Ric Burns
see: "A portrait of an artist both loved and hated" (NYT, 20 September 2006)


photo: anonymous, in Blow Job (USA, 1964)