Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Octavius Hite]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/28/afghanistan-canada.html

[sundubuman]

can the anti-americanism stoop any lower? Someday, when both Texas and Florida have more people than Canada(California already does, the other 2 should do by 2025)), maybe, just maybe, there will be some sense of perspective from the media up north.

Canada's participation in Afghanistan is les than negligible and is mainly being done for its own interest, to maintain some semblance of relativity while its influence and population continue to shrink vis-a-vis America's. Maybe Harper can change that, time will tell....

If Canada pulled out of Afghanistan tomorrow, no one would notice, except for the Canadians. It's actually a little sad....actually.

[Octavius Hite]

Well maybe thats true, but what is really sad is when a country fights a stupid drug war that it lost 50 years ago but refuses to accept defeat. Instead the government run by a bunch of self-interested, big pharma lobby interests, moral hypocrites pretends that war is somehow relevant and important to a modern country. Meanwhile the same country's schools are crumbling, it lacks basic healthcare for its citizens and can't even balance its own books.

I'll take Canada's minor role in Afghanistan anytime.

[otis]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[mithridates]

[ajgeddes]

[laogaiguk]

[sundubuman]

Dude, the anti-americanism I am talking about is not the fact that a French think tank produced it, it's the fact that the CBC chose to report the garbage and (I'm assuming Octavius is a Canadian) that a Canadian chose to turn it into a thread.

And my guess is that many of the Canadians on the ground in Afghanistan would back me up on the claim that this article (and heck the entire CBC in general) is totally anti-American.

get it?


more on CBC's anti-Amrican bent


To gauge the extent of anti-American sentiment on CBC, one year�s coverage of the Corporation�s flagship news program, The National, for 2002 was examined. The authors chose 2002 because it followed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, but was prior to the US invasion of Iraq.

In total there were 2,383 statements inside the 225 stories that referred to America or the United States on CBC in 2002. As with most news coverage, the largest number of statements was neutral; they constituted 49.1 percent of the attention. Thirty-four percent of the attention to America or the United States was negative, over double the 15.4 percent positive descriptors. Only 1.6 percent of the statements were considered ambiguous.

The main issue, constituting 27 percent of the coverage, was relations between Canada and the United States. Within this category 41 percent of statements were neutral. Of the remainder, statements were over twice as likely to be negative as positive regarding Canada/US relations (39 percent versus 18.9 percent).

Terrorism was the second most-often cited issue area where CBC mentioned America, at 10.8 percent. Here the negative comments overwhelmed positive evaluations by a 9-to-1 margin (37.6 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively). Neutral statements, however, constituted 58.1 percent of the total coverage, which somewhat restored balance insofar as even a factual report on terrorist activity is usually seen to be a negative reflection on terrorism.

The third most mentioned American issue on CBC in 2002 was build-up to the war in Iraq. At 10.5 percent, this topic was covered almost as extensively as terrorism, which received 10.8 percent of the CBC�s attention. The negative evaluations of the American policy in Iraq were only slightly lower than on terrorism, comprising an 8-in-10 negative-to-positive ratio, compared to 9 in 10 for terrorism.

In total, despite the relative short period of time after the 9/11 attacks, the CBC�s opinion statements of America during 2002 were overwhelmingly critical of American policy, American actions, and American purposes.

�CBC has certainly claimed an important agenda-setting role for itself. To the extent it deserves the reputation it covets, the corporation is at least partly responsible for enhancing and sustaining anti-Americanism in Canada following the 2001 terrorist attacks. CBC, in short, helped turn the joint outrage of Canada and the United States at the terrorists into mistrust and animosity between the two neighbours,� Cooper concluded.

[ddeubel]

This makes Octavius' comment about "buying" the poppy harvest from farmers, a lot more realistic. Best way to stop this other than letting the Taliban in -- and to their little credit, atleast they did stop this production.

But yeah, America's policy on drugs is ass backwards and hypocritical. Wrong approach, too direct, without nuance. Like much of their foreign policy. It is like they are eating with their hands.

DD

[dogbert]

Offices in London, Paris, Brussels, and ........... Kabul?

[ajgeddes]

[Octavius Hite]

What kills me is that the think tank says the US poppy policy is failing. Instead of saying "ok, now what can we do to actually win the fight, stop the Taleban from raising cash, win the war, control the flow of narcotics, prevent Afghanistan from becoming a narco-state, and prevent the spread of HIV (cause where herion goes HIV follows)" these war mongering kool-aid drinking Bushites say "see, see I told you they hate us. they just disagree with us because they hate us". Did you ever stop to think that we say these things because we don't want the Taleban coming back? We dont want AIDS to continue rage across the globe? We don't want anymore (black) men sentenced to years in jail for possesion? We want money spent on schools and hospitals rather than the DEA and prisons? You see that's the difference between the left and the right, we want to make the world a better place. You guys want to kill and destroy and make millions doing. Tell me, what does it feel like to be so filled with hate?

[SOOHWA101]

I am at odds in understanding how anyone can blast America for removing the Taliban. Critics complain about poppy, an ambiguous connection to AIDS, and soldiers dying for an unsubstantiated cause. Believing in the alternative is downright inhumane.

Kool-aid was correct...who ever mentioned it. Have we all forgotten what life was like before we got there, not to mention the whole direct link with 9/11. Lets reiterate for those that forget so easily:

-heavy handed oppression of women(could spend all night bulleting examples)
-they banned music, television, movies, internet
-Singing is allowed for men only if it is unaccompanied and consists of singing Islamic prayers
-Many games and sports have been banned, including flying kites and keeping or playing with pigeons. At those games or sporting events that are allowed, onlookers are forbidden from clapping or cheering but may only encourage the sportsmen by chanting "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great)
-violators may be lashed or beaten on the spot, taken to a public place for a whipping, imprisoned, subject to amputation of fingers, limbs, or publicly executed(NO DUE PROCESS)
-The penalty for adultery is execution by stoning. The penalty for preaching any religion other than Islam is death. The penalty for possessing objectionable literature is death. The penalty for converting from Islam to any other religion is death. The penalty for organizing a class to educate girls over the age of 12 is death by hanging, and the same penalty is imposed on the students


I am a student of WWII, and aside from the genocide, this sounds Naziesque to me. How can anyone honestly complain that this regime is history. I did not even begin to list the crimes against humanity, but how can anyone look down at the USA for ridding Afghanistan of these people?
Poppy versus this kind of oppression? Where is the logic, this is an easy one folks.

[Octavius Hite]

Ok, see this is you not reading what I wrote. I DO NOT want the Taleban back in power. The US removing them was a good thing for all of humanity. I want the ISAF to WIN the war. The point of the article was that the US' poppy policy and application is not only a failure, but it is helping the Taleban regain its military strength. If the US does not change the way it is playing the game it will lose this conflict. Wake up and actually read what I wrote.