A Move Toward Politics

The recent report delivered to Parliament from the Hon. John Manley again missed an important point. I don't really get to discuss the intricacies of Canadian foreign policy here and mostly that's a relief, but with Canadian soldiers putting their lives on the line it feels like my duty to face facts. Laid at the feet of the last Liberal government is the unanswered, never asked questions as to how we will bring our boys home. Continuing until now we've been presented with happy descriptions of a prosperous, stable, democratic Afghanistan. But what hasn't been discussed is the obvious - what underpins this admirable and ambitious plan - Afghanistan's economic reality. I'm baffled as to how this factor goes unsaid. It's important on so many levels as to what kind of Afghanistan we leave behind. Afghanistan's' economic situation should have been discussed from the start. Not as the only determining factor, but an element among many that shapes the rebuilding. How I, a man of average intelligence and without an elaborate foreign affairs apparatus, saw this and not our leaders, has always left me uneasy. Why was Canada never told about this? Instead we saw Idealism from the Liberals and the Conservative government until now has been happy to portray any dissenter as "Un-Canadian" (with a straight face too). The panel who was wisely non-partisan in their conclusions - but for the record stacked with conservatives - has began to shift the debate back to reality with facts.

In missing the economic reality of Afghanistan the best laid plans fail and debate turns to absurdity. Afghanistan has no resources (poppy-growing excluded). This is a historic reality and - ultimately - geographic bad luck. They have no gold, no coal, no oil, no trees, no fresh water, etc. Nothing from which can be used to build up an economy. Just reference Canada when one need witness what can be done when a society is blessed with natural recourses. So that leaves only a couple of other options. Tourism is one. It's a highly-desirable, non-polluting, high-profit, history-preserving industry. Clearly Afghanistan has a couple of strikes against it in this regard. I can't soon imagine seeing tourists flock to Afghanistan. Consider next developing Afghanistan's high tech sector. Again, it's a non-polluting, high-education, high-profit industry. Besides the decades Canada would need to be there to provide stability as Afghanistan first built universities and then started to turn out graduates (I'd said it would take one generation for the violence to subside and the positive affects of wide-spread higher-education on industry to be seen) an obvious contradiction exists that Canada, or any other Western country, does not wish to give away their own high tech industry. Manufacturing is also an option but fails at many of the same points high-tech industry does, in addition to Afghanistan's poor location to receive or distribute goods efficient (not to mention the state of its infrastructure). The issues I have outlined are only insurmountable if they are ignored. Afghanistan's economic situation should have been transparently addressed from the beginning. I can't imagine the most recent report being much use when it does not provide a true map as to the obstacles Canada faces before ever leaving.