A March 26 article in the British paper The Telegraph says that “flushing out the Taliban and holding the terrain in the Pushtun heartland is proving immeasurably difficult for NATO. In Kandahar, the Canadian army has had to scale back its ambitious plans… to drive into the militant heartland… it proved too dangerous to run supplies […]
Archive | March, 2007
Afghanistan and Canadian Peacekeeping (A critical appraisal)
Last Thursday Dr. Walter Dorn gave this presentation to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee as part of its study on Afghanistan. Professor Dorn is Associate Professor of Defence Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Forces College, and in the last year has been an outspoken critic of Canada’s […]
Afghanistan: What you won't see on the CBC
In a posting to the Ploughshares peacelist yesterday I promised to comment on the recently-released report on the current state of Afghanistan by the Senlis Council, a prominent European think-tank. Since it runs to hundreds of pages and covers dozens of topics, where to start? On the CBC and other Canadian media, the first priority […]
Will the war in Afghanistan be an NDP issue in the next election?
Last Saturday morning I stopped by the Mariott hotel in downtown Ottawa where hundreds of NDP activists and future election candidates from across the country had gathered for an intensive election “bootcamp” called Breakthrough 2007. Many of the sessions were designed to help local, riding-level campaigns on everything from preparing election materials, doing media interviews, […]
Your help is needed! the pro-war lobby is targetting us
A Canadian battle tank in Afghanistan. Supporting the US-led War on Terror has undermined our peacekeeping reputation in the eyes of Afghanis and the world. (DND photo) Dear Ceasefire.ca supporter Canadians have a great reputation as peacekeepers around the world, but that role is under attack. And I am very concerned that combat operations instead of […]
The 2007 budget and military spending
Not many surprises in the budget today for military spending. While Finance Minister Jim Flaherty did not announce any new spending increases, the budget did include a shifting of $175 million from 2009-10 to be spent much sooner this year (2007-08). Here is what the today’s budget said about defence: Implementing the Canada First Defence Plan […]