The Liberal Toronto Star goes berserk

Over the last three print days the Toronto Star has mounted an unconscionable attack the Conservative government. Page after page of diatribe has been spewed out in an odorous belching against various officials of the government, the Canadian Army and anyone else that the Star could find to subject to their disgusting distortions of fact.

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Their fundamental assumption is that a well reputed “whistle blower,” a Canadian diplomat by the name of Richard Colvin has been telling the hierarchy for years that he has reasonable grounds to suspect that Taliban prisoners captured by the Canadian army and turned over to the Afghan Army have been tortured in Afghani prisons. The thread of the story is that this information has been hidden from the government by the chain of command (yet by some mysterious osmosis found its way to the knowledge of the Prime Minister) and that the Canadian public has been kept in the dark. It is even aggressively suggested that some government officials have acted in contravention of international laws and perhaps should be tried a as war criminals. The truth is that the public has been fully aware for years that the Afghani prison system is suspect. It was even discussed publicly, in parliament, two years ago and many times since. Reports were that the prison system had been improved and torture banned.

What Canadians Know

Canadians are well aware that the Afghan government is corrupt. We know that much of our funding goes astray. We know that various tribal factions headed by warlords; some part of the Afghan government, are operating on a very different level than expected in developed democratic governments. However, we also know that on balance, the Afghan regime is trying to convert a very backward and impoverished country to some sort of representative and forward looking society. Canadians also feel intuitively that it is possible that prisoners are tortured in Afghan prisons. The question is what to do about such things? It is obvious that we have done as much as is practicable if we wish to accomplish our objectives in helping (a) improve security in Afghanistan so that civil conversion can take place and (b) work with the Afghan military and politicians to help them achieve the confidence of their citizens so that progress is possible. Right now we know things are improving, but tenuous. We could lose it all if we become pristinely puritanical. To people accustomed to having nothing work in their favour; to grinding poverty; to earth shattering explosions killing their loved ones and so much more, a suspected brutal prison system is not necessarily a high order on the list of their immediate concerns. Is it not politic to address as much as we can without losing our ability to obtain cooperation from the Afghani leadership by becoming totally obnoxious? Our military and the government are rightly offended by the opposition politicians, the Star and others spewing egregious vomit all over their courageous and dedicated efforts to do a very difficult job on behalf of all of us. Canadians know things are less than ideal. Richard Colvin did his job but there his job ends. He is not a courageous whistleblower as the Star proclaims, he is a professional diplomat.

Canadians and their government

Canadians are not as stupid or ignorant as the Toronto Star pretends. The Star’s imputation that our Army, its generals and many of its government ministers do not comprehend the situation or were hiding it from the public is pure shameful politicking. To imply that the government is covering up the possibility of torture is balderdash. To compare the situation with the poor leadership and a few drunken soldiers that got out of hand in Somalia with the present situation, as Jim Travers (Star journalist) did, is beyond despicable. Canadians generally want the Canadians out of the Afghanistan because it is so difficult and they don’t like to see the cost in lives and wounded of our courageous young soldiers. There is a growing awareness though, that our reputation among the nations of the world is improving greatly since we assumed the more difficult role of peace making. So-called peace keeping is of no value unless both warring parties agree to the “peace keeping arrangement.” But that is not the world we live in today. Some Canadians, particularly those blinded by Liberal rhetoric as published over the last few days by the Toronto Star, think we can fight on all fronts at once and if we cannot, we should all go home and let the USA wage our battles for us, as they did from 1960 until recently. In our history, real Canadians have never desired that type of miserable cowardly role.

Why has the Toronto Star abused their mandate?

The simple fact is that the editors and journalists of the Star have been proven wrong on so many fronts of late that they are losing control of their emotions. They are utterly confused. They ask themselves:

• How can this uncharismatic Prime Minister Harper have lasted so long in government?
• What do we do now that Harper and his party have learned to play the minority game?
• Why are his numbers climbing in all the polls?
• How is it that our Liberal multicultural policy of separate identity is being questioned?
• What do we do when they are even telling immigrants to learn Canadian ways?
• Why do our citizens now take pride in our history of military prowess?
• Where is our forty year tradition of peacekeeping gone?
• How come P.M. Paul Martin, Stephane Dion, and Michael Ignatieff have all failed as our Liberal leaders?
• Where, oh where, is our next Trudeau?
• What are we to do? Has Canada has gone mad - or could it be us?

When people are confused they become frustrated. Next they behave erratically. Psychiatrists tell us this is often expressed by lashing out. The Toronto Star has lashed out with extreme venom and they have lost all credibility as a result.