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Extending the Afghan mission

Send Code Pink Water Boy Jack Layton on one-way ticket to Afghanistan



Trying to brand his party as the sole anti-war option, Canadian New Democrat Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton took steady aim, pulled the trigger, and shot himself in both left feet on Thursday. The Taliban cannot be defeated, so let’s leave is Layton’s latest lament is his ongoing mantra to bring Canadian troops back home. Layton, whose timing on publicity is mostly precision perfect, blew it this time. But how was Layton to know that just one day later, the infamous Abu Laith al-Libi, one of al-Qaeda’s top commanders in Afghanistan, would be killed? If this weren’t embarrassing enough, Smiling’ Jack fouled up on what must-have-been his swallow-the-history-of Afghanistan-in-just-one-sitting cramming lesson.

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“It’s an endless mission. There’s no end in sight. We say it’s a dead end,” Layton told reporters Thursday. “No one has laid out, anywhere, that’s it’s possible to ultimately win a war in this region. No one. And historical experience shows that it’s been impossible—whether it be Alexander the Great, the British in the 19th century, or the Russians in the 20th century.” Layton, flunked History 101. Even the Layton friendly Toronto Star sermonized: “The British did in fact defeat an Afghan insurgency in the Second Afghan War in 1880—and the battle ended in Kandahar, where Canadian troops are currently located. “And Alexander’s trek through Asia did not stall in Afghanistan. “It ended in India, after his troops had already marched through Afghanistan and founded the cities of Heart and Kandahar. The latter was named after him.” The Star could have added that Alexander the Great was so welcome in Afghanistan that he took himself an Afghan wife. Aside from the one upmanship over who’s more anti-war, Layton should have no trouble getting the blessings of Canadian Liberal Leader Stephane Dion when he visits him Monday to prepare for the bring the troops home agenda. Nowhere in the one-note song sung by Layton and Dion is there a refrain about how it was the Liberals and not the Stephen Harper Conservative government that agreed to a U.S. request to send Canadian troops to Afghanistan. Even so, the result of Monday’s Layton-Dion discussion could carry major implications for the Afghan mission and for Canadian politics. If Dion agrees with Layton, the three opposition parties—including the Bloc Quebecois—could outvote the government in any parliamentary move to extend the Afghan mission beyond February 2009. Layton shows Socialist hypocrisy in ignoring the suffering of Afghan civilians, particularly women and children at the hands of the treacherous Taliban. Nor does he show much regard for the morale of Canadian solders in harm’s way and their worried loved ones awaiting their return. The NDP leader’s anti-war role of late has him serving as a water boy for the American Code Pink, roundly booed when they tried to bring their anti-war message to the Rose Bowl Parade this New Year’s Day. Meanwhile, someone should boost Canadian troop morale by sending Layton a one-way ticket to the place he knows zero about, Kandahar.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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