Angry in the Great White North

Jack Layton and the NDP is now holding the position that nothing can beat the Taliban, and certainly not Canada's military:

NDP Leader Jack Layton says the Taliban cannot be defeated by international troops and there's no point continuing to fight an unwinnable war in Afghanistan.

Although his party has long called for a withdrawal of Canadian troops, Layton's emphatic statement about the futility of the mission comes amid a new push to present his party as the sole anti-war option.

He intends to meet with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion next Monday and has a bleak message for him.

"It's an endless mission. There's no end in sight. We say it's a dead end," Layton told reporters Thursday.

"No one has laid out, anywhere, that it's possible to ultimately win a war in this region.

Jack Layton is not clear about just what makes the Taliban invincible.  Superior technology?  Clever tactics? 

Or maybe it's because Jack Layton thinks the Taliban is on the side of the angels?  Gosh, I hope it's not that.   Too many NDP supporters already think Canadian soldiers are war criminals.  I'd hate to think that rot has reached to the top levels of the NDP.

Whatever the reason, Jack Layton's comments fly in the face of an article written by the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon:

Afghanistan is a potent symbol of the costs inherent in abandoning nations to the lawless forces of anarchy. That alone justifies international efforts to help rebuild the country. Lest there be any doubt, remember Sept. 11, 2001, and its worldwide reverberations. We learned then how a country, shorn of its civic institutions, becomes a vacuum to be filled by criminals and opportunists. In its chaos and poverty, Afghanistan became a home base for terrorism.

Must we learn that lesson all over again? The past six years have seen a massive international partnership to rebuild Afghanistan's state institutions. A modern constitution was adopted after widespread popular consultations. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held. Three million refugees returned from decades of exile. Clearly, a large majority of the population supports the international community's efforts on Afghans' behalf.

Yet, this progress is in jeopardy. Once again, the opportunists are on the rise, seeking anew to make Afghanistan a lawless place — a locus of instability, terrorism and drug trafficking. Their means are desperate: suicide bombs, kidnappings, the killing of government officials and hijacking of aid convoys. Almost more dismaying is the response of some outside Afghanistan, who react by calling for a disengagement or the full withdrawal of international forces. This would be a misjudgment of historic proportions, the repetition of a mistake that has already had terrible consequences.

The United Nations has been in Afghanistan for many decades. Our institutional memory stretches back to the traumas of the Taliban, and beyond to the era when rival militias battled one another for the meagre spoils of a country broken by civil war. Our hopes for the future look to a day when Afghan state institutions stand on their own, able to tackle with dignity the difficult tasks of reconstruction and development while providing security and justice within secure borders.

I believe that day is within reach. We cannot let it be lost to the inhuman violence of today's insurgents.

For all the frustrations and periodic setbacks, I am heartened by the strong and sustained international support given to Afghanistan. Security concerns notwithstanding, there has been obvious progress. Girls' school enrolment has increased dramatically in the past five years. Six million children are in schools today, compared to less than a million under the Taliban. More than five million children have been immunized against polio, crucial not only for them, but also for our fight to eradicate polio worldwide. Half a million Afghans have gained access to safe water.

New roads are helping farmers get produce to markets. Afghan farmers are meeting 95 per cent of the country's grain needs; in 2001, the figure was less than 50 per cent. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, created following the 2001 Bonn Agreement, now has nine provincial offices, actively promoting human rights. Under the Taliban, women's participation in public and political life was non-existent. Today, 28 per cent of the seats in parliament are held by women.

The United Nations, alongside national and international counterparts, non-governmental organizations and Afghan civil society, will continue to provide the Afghan government whatever assistance it needs to build on these achievements. Our collective success depends on the continuing presence of the International Security Assistance Force, commanded by NATO and helping local governments in nearly every province to maintain security and carry out reconstruction projects.

In December, the Afghan National Army, supported by ISAF forces, reclaimed the town of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand, occupied by insurgents since February of 2007, and a major poppy-growing area. Significantly, it was led by the Afghan army and carried out at the request of the local population. At long last, development work can begin anew in Musa Qala.

The Afghan government has far to go before it regains control of its own destiny. But that day will come. It is hard work. There is little glory. It requires sacrifices. And that is why we are there.

According to Ban Ki-moon, Jack Layton is one of many who seem only too eager to repeat the mistakes of history by abandoning Afghanistan.

And what would they be abandoning?  Apparently a nation on its way to turning things around.

The Afghan National Army is enjoying battlefield successes.  Thanks to Afghan farmers, Afghanistan is achieving self-sufficiency in agriculture.  There is safe water for many, and a widespread immunization program.  There are more women in the Afghan parliament than in Canada (28% in Afghanistan versus 21% in Canada).

But none of this matters.  That all these successes would be undone the moment the Taliban were to regain power does not matter.  That soldiers and civilians from Canada and from around the world have sacrificed so much to push the Taliban back and show the Afghan people just what life could be like does not matter. 

That 9/11 could happen all over again does not matter.

The Taliban will win.  The Taliban must win.  According to Jack Layton, it is a historical inevitability, and no effort mustered by Canadian soldiers and no sacrifice borne by their families can change what must be:

"No one [can win a war against the Taliban in this region]. And historical experience shows that it's been impossible – whether it be Alexander the Great, the British in the 19th century, or the Russians in the 20th century.

"We're saying let's recognize these historical realities."

According to Jack Layton, the Taliban must rule Afghanistan.  And Canada must get out of the way so that it can happen.  The sooner, the better.

History must not be denied.  The people of Afghanistan have no choice, no future, no hope.  Jack Layton would deliver them to the Taliban in a heartbeat.

"Taliban Jack" indeed.