Open Letter Re: Attacking Afghanistan
Canada appears ready to lend whatever symbolic aid it can in the US's planned attacks on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan.
Without yet presenting any evidence that the alleged terrorists the US plans to attack had anything to do with the World Trade Center attacks, Bush is already calling for bin Laden ``dead or alive''. This seems extremely premature.
For all the rhetoric decrying terrorism, the US appears dead set on doing unto the terrorists what was done to them. This is a pathetic and unproductive high-stakes pissing match, and Canada should not step into the middle of it.
Instead, Canada should attempt -- through diplomacy and aid, not at gun-point -- to bring whomever is responsible for the WTC attacks to justice. ``Justice'', of course, does not include cruise missiles or laser-guided bombs.
What will America's military campaign cost? What could be achieved if this sum was instead spent on humanitarian aid to the devastated and destitute Afghani people? Would they then perhaps be more willing to have accused terrorists tried at international courts?
We will, apparently, never know.
Canada should not commit any of its armed forces to the conflict Americans seem intent on heightening.