Canada’s Involvement in Afghanistan
Introduction
The invasion of Afghanistan according to Canada was based on the September 11 attacks on US soil. The minister of defense, Art Eggleton suggested an involvement of over 100 Canadian forces that were in the United States to participate in the operation. The objectives of the operation were in additionally; to pick out and neutralize all the al-Qaeda members in the United States, doing away with the Taliban regime which was related to terrorism acts worldwide. Canada laid out its goals as sustaining its interests, maintaining its leadership in the world arena and the assistance to Afghanistan to set up itself.
Canada’s involvement in the war was all for the benefit of itself as well as Afghanistan. Taliban was and still is a well-known terrorist group that applies force of whatever means to pass a point home (Pigott, 2007). Women and children who attempt to go against their principles is severely punished, this may even go further as raping or death. A country that attempts to oppose its principles is attacked in holy wars termed to as Jihad. Canada’s involvement was to protect its citizens from such bad practices. Taliban offers support, whether technically or morally, to terrorist all over the world. Its involvement in the war would help end terrorism and its practices all over the world.
The people of Afghanistan are people who are suffering most from the activities the Taliban is undertaking. Women and children continue to live in fear of the activities undertaken by the Taliban, men and boys are recruited into the army against their will. This blocks the advancement of the country as children do not receive appropriate education, women are raped and the men and boys are involved in the production of opium. The average life expectancy is below 45 years, mothers over 1600 out of an approximate 100,000 die as they are giving birth when compared to Canada’s 6 out of a possible 100,000. Most of the government positions are taken up by former warlords who still have criminal cases trailing them (John, 2010). The members of parliament are persons who have criminal records like killing and stealing of billions of shillings meant for aid in the country. Canada’s involvement would help put an end to this and hopefully oversee a restructuring of a new government composed of morally upright individuals.
Even though the mission in Afghan was not that popular from the other countries point of view, the Canadian mission offered the people of Afghanistan a liberal support. In the time of elections, the Canadian mission propelled many Afghans to go and vote, more so those from Quebec who were correlated to the NDP. According to the former Canadian diplomat Christopher Westdal, Canada’s involvement was of more benefit than it was initially thought (Meyer, 2011). Mr. Westdal said that the individuals who were opposed to Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan had the option of either NDP or the Bloc to look at and if there was any dislike of the Bloc separatist they only had to vote for NDP.
The government that came into place, termed to as the conservative government, ventured into ways of having the Canadian military to offer military training to the Afghan military. This training session was set to take place in Russia as measure of reducing the Canadian involvement in Afghanistan and rebuild of Haiti. The government though wanted some Canadian soldiers to remain in Afghanistan to offer training services. According to WikiLeaks, which are unites states cables, the Canadian were set to not only offer military support through training, but to also offer financial support (News, 2011). This was aimed at bringing back the country to its feet.
Canada had already set out strategies on how to withdraw most of its troops from the country, but establish a focus on the Taliban terrorist group. The Taliban were known to be placed along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border which had no tight security hence the free flow of the Taliban. The group was feared and spread its fear in most parts of the country. Canada was set to put an end to this by offering to put up a tight security along the border. This would block the back and forth movement of the group. With an end put to the military involvement so as to allow the conservative government takes over, Canada established a Trust Fund termed to as The Afghan Trust Fund. It is in this trust fund that contributions will be made which will be ventured to assist several sectors of the country, top consideration being given to the Pakistan-Afghan border. This however was bound to become a bond of contention if more dedications and commitments were to be made to Afghan from back home.
Canada presented a formidable force against an enemy that was loathed by many in Afghan, the Taliban, which was brought to its knees. This was later followed by the creation of an Afghan Security Forces in a country that was trailed by violation of human rights and corruption. The Canadian army offered a several services in addition to putting an end to the reign of the Taliban. The Afghan army had also to receive training from the Canadian army on how to respect human rights and to possess democratic principles. The citizens in Afghanistan would be the beneficiaries of all these effort put across by the Canadian army.
The Afghans similarly benefited from the Canada Afghanistan Solidarity Committee which was aimed at ensuring that the women in Afghanistan attended schools (Solidarity, 2011). This led to the emergence of classes that lay hidden from the Taliban which was big threat to women education. Over 50, 000 women went to schools as well as literacy classes that were upheld by another group called Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WA) which has existed since 1996. Over 2.2 million girls have been able to access school due to the Canadian support. The present gains made by women have been attributed Canadian’s financial support as well as the military assistance in the bringing down of the Taliban. Ataullahjan, Pakistani Pashtun commended the Canadian government for the advancement the Afghans have acquired. More specifically for the women who have achieved their basic human rights.
Canada committed $30 million to assist the reform agenda in Afghanistan’s legal system. This was announced by Helena Guergis, the secretary of state, foreign affairs and international trade. Helena was part of a large confederation of 20 countries that assembled to assist Afghanistan stand on its feet by implementing the reform justice system since a 30 year period of dictatorship. The rule of law in Afghanistan was helped to overrule any form of misjudgment and restore hope to the Afghans that justice will finally take place (Ctv, 2007). The process involved a 1.3 billion dollars program that is designed to train judges, and prosecutors as well as informal disputes of leaders in Kandahar province, this is according to Guergis. Focus will be given to women and their rights. As at now the Afghans have an attorney general, Supreme Court and a ministry as well as a system that makes it possible to train individuals to become trusted and loyal judges. The country is also a victim of massive corruption, inadequate salaries for the judges, poor facilities. The poor system has contributed to the lack of confidence of several Afghanis; the contribution would surely help to cement their hopes all due to the Canadians assistance.
Conclusion
The Canadian government must be committed in the development projects for a period that is not less than ten years. There should be an increase in the budget allocations as the problems faced in Afghanistan can not be done away with easily. Taking into considerations the arguments about the use of the military by Canada, the Afghans will have to be protected by the same military till the time the country is able to stand on its self (Gordon, 2007). This may even go ahead to increase the military presence from NATO. The security responsibility for the Afghans will have to be turned over to the Afghans as a rapid measure to keep the security on its feet; this will be done by increasing the security forces. Taking into consideration that aerial bombings will take up more innocent individuals, there should be a more ‘boots on ground’ strategy.
The Canadian government in its effort to offer food to the Afghans, it should however make more efforts to do away with malnutrition and starvation which is rampant in the south. The remotest of villages should be in apposition to access food supplies. This will be made possible if the Canadian government liaised with several organizations that are trustworthy to offer food delivery services to villages.
Canada has done more than what most people would have imagined to have done. In the initial phase, there was a lot of wide spread anger of their involvement, especially the use of the military which was seen as crossing the line. The wide range of development can be attributed to the commitment they have in the Afghanistan and the desire to assist it to stand on its own two feet and become a sovereign state away from the fear they initially had.
Bibliography
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Gordon, S. (2007, March). Canada in Afghanistan: Is it working? Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://www.cdfai.org/PDF/Canada%20in%20Afghanistan%20Is%20it%20Working.pdf
John, R. (2010, December 16). Canada’s Role in Afghanistan: ‘Ask Afghans what would help them, don’t ask Karzai’. Retrieved June 22, 2011, from http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22425
Meyer, C. (2011, May 4). How the Afghan mission influenced the election. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/foreign-05-04-2011
News, A. N. (2011, May 9). Canada was hoping to train Afghan security forces in Russia: U.S. diplomatic cables. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/05/09/canada-was-hoping-to-train-afghan-security-forces-in-russia-u-s-diplomatic-cables/
Pigott, P. (2007). Canada in Afghanistan: the war so far. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Dundurn Press Ltd.
Solidarity, A.-C. (2011, June 7). Canada Afghanistan Solidarity Committee. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://afghanistan-canada-solidarity.org/
