posted on Mar, 3 2009 @ 10:20 PM
"Wasn't he the guy that Canada involved in Afghanistan? Or did the Liberals do that? I thought it was Harper."
Jean Chretien (Liberal) was the Canadian Prime Minister during Canada's initial deployment of troops in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. Although
Chretien supported the Afghan mission, he was against the Iraq invasion. I have heard rumblings that the USA "asked" Canada politely to stay out of
Iraq, so the US would not have to "share the wealth".
In any event, after Chretien retired, Paul Martin (Liberal) took over as PM and continued the Afghan war effort. After Martin's party was defeated by
the Harper Conservatives, the mission continued.
One of the reasons why Harper is flip-flopping on Afghanistan is because his party took an absolute beating in the province of Quebec during the last
election. Quebec is arguably the most anti-war province in Canada. You can honestly say that Quebec is the reason why Harper does not have a majority,
and probably will never get a majority government. You can do the rest of the math.
In addition, certain Canadian military brass have gone on record recently saying the situation in Afghanistan is worsening:
www.ctv.ca...
For Harper to continue to deny the hard facts about this mission would amount to political suicide. Most Canadians have been quite perplexed as to why
Canada has been in Afghanistan for so long. Now with the economy going down the toilet, there are much more urgent needs on the homefront than trying
to "democratize" a stubborn wild beast like Afghanistan.