Should Canada Get Out of Afghanistan?

Should Canada Get out of Afghanistan?

Afghanistan is a country in Central Asia and is often included as a part of the Middle East. It is bordered by Iran in the west, Pakistan in the south and east, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the easternmost part of the country. It is among the poorest countries in the world. I believe that Canada should remove itself and get out of Afghanistan. There is no need for us to be fighting along side the U.S anymore, diplomacy and all.

Firstly I believe that Canada has provided enough aid to Afghanistan and the Afghani people since it’s stationing in the region. Since 2001 Canada has been responsible for the storage and decommissioning of 10,000 heavy weapons left over in Afghanistan such as: Artillery, tanks and rocket launchers. More then one third of the 10 to 15 million estimated land mines have been cleared by Canadian soldiers, as a nation we have loaned money to more then 140,000 afghan citizens, and we have also trained the afghan police force and army. Operation Athena which began in Kabul in august 2003 saw that a 1,900 Canadian task force provided assistance to the local infrastructure by committing menial tasks such as well digging or seeing to the repair of local buildings. In March of 2004, Canada committed $250 million worth of aid towards Afghanistan and 5 million to aid and embed in the 2004-afghan elections.

Secondly a problem we have recently run into is the correlation with the United States. No longer can we say we are a neutral country or located in the region on missionary terms anymore. This is now a campaign of capturing and defeating the enemy. Taking sides in a civil war between militants, insurgents and the like. Now that where in the country as fighting forces, the Taliban will not be one to quickly turn cheek. In fact militant leader and Taliban spokesperson Mullah Dadallah has enunciated that only America is there enemy but will view all the fighting forces from other countries just the same. Ddadallah himself has even stated that the U.S is just using Canada like a tool to fight its battles. So even despite our good intentions with actions such as building bridges and having sit-downs with locals, good intentions are simply not enough when dealing with militant groups such as al-qaeda or the Taliban. We have been branded.

• Thirdly, the casualties are starting to enumerate, since April 18 2002, we are now at about twenty Canadian casualties. Most of these deaths are a result of suicide bombings on patrols and convoys, the hardest kind of battle to strategize against.

• Sergeant Marc D. Leger, 18 Apr 2002

• Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, 18 Apr 2002

• Private Richard Green, 18 Apr 2002

• Private Nathan Smith, 18 Apr 2002

• Sergeant Robert Alan Short, 2 Oct 2003

• Corporal