The leadership of a punching bag
Stéphane Dion’s seditious stance on Afghanistan
Jesse Beach, Volunteer Staff
They have finally done it. They have stalled and debated, questioned and argued, until now, with child-like ignorance and appalling ease; they have doomed hundreds of civilians to injury and death. The liberals, “led” by their puppet Stéphane Dion, were responsible for three deadly attacks in as many days early last week in southern Afghanistan.
On Sunday, Feb. 17, more than 100 people were killed in a suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition in Kandahar. The next day, at least 38 civilians were killed in a suicide car bombing targeted at a Canadian convoy in southern Afghanistan. The day after that, at least one other person was killed and four more wounded as a car bomb exploded near a police compound.
Sadly, this level of violence is not even considered an escalation of normal attacks according to Defence Minister Peter MacKay; however, the rise in civilian casualties is something that has been noticed. On Monday, MacKay told reporters that the rise in civilian casualties was probably designed for domestic Canadian consumption, meaning that civilians are being targeted with the sole intent of the news making it back to the Canadian public. With the debate about Canada’s future role in Afghanistan in question, MacKay feels that the Taliban may be trying to sway Canadian opinion with the civilian death toll.
The Taliban would not feel these brutal actions to be necessary had they not sensed a doubt in Canadian resolve. By questioning Canada’s role, by attempting to remove Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan, Dion and the liberal party are announcing their hesitancy to lead to the world. The Taliban are exploiting this hesitancy to their advantage. The more we second-guess our role, the more we remove ourselves from the offensive position, the more we embolden the Taliban.
Dion scoffs at this theory, questioning the lack of evidence and adding that, in a democracy, debate is necessary and unavoidable. He is, of course, correct in his assessment of debate being necessary in a democratic nation, if not in his dismissal of the lack of evidence in MacKay’s accusations.
However, it is not so much the position of the liberals that is so dangerous, but their reasoning behind that position. Dion has never maintained that the combat mission in Afghanistan should end, merely Canada’s role in that mission. Far from being so naive as to think the war-stricken nation should not be militarily occupied, Dion is simply unwilling to be the leader in such a role. This position sends the message to the Taliban that Canada, the only nation willing to lead a significant force against them, is ready to back down. Dion is quite literally telling the Taliban that a hard push of atrocities could soon spell victory.
Dion is unwilling or unable to acknowledge this simple fact. He has, as always, his eyes pointed up towards the stars, refusing to see the political realities right in front of him. Travelling quite high above the rest of us on his high horse, Dion maintains his superiority by trying to save Canadian lives and hiding under environmental reforms. Unfortunately, his plan to save the lives of Canadians sacrifices the lives of innocent civilians and, hopefully in Dion’s eyes, the soldiers of another nation.
Stéphane Dion is not a leader. He refuses to act on the realities that are occurring right before his eyes; he’s content to merely lash out at the drawbacks of plans initiated by others. By removing himself from the political realities of the Afghan mission by living in an idealized plane of the way things should be, Dion has become the political equivalent of an inflatable punching bag, firing back only when stuck. Unfortunately for Stephan Harper, the Conservative party, and the Afghan people, such a bag, though unable to support itself against the pressure of others, can never fully lie down. So Dion, not able to push himself or the liberals into useful action, only able to return fire at the Conservatives, is forever placed in the way of progress.
Though I would love to live in the reality that Stéphane Dion enjoys, where the Canadian people could merely build roads and hospitals without ever having to confront the actual war effort, such a dream is, at the moment, impossible. In order to prevent more of these tragic civilian casualties, we must remove the doubts of the Liberal party, stop the hesitance that emboldens the Taliban, and continue to push, rather than be pushed. It is not solely about the safety of our soldiers, who fight willingly, but for the safety of innocent civilians who we have promised, with our presence, to protect.
Jesse Beach is a fourth-year English student.
