Most of the news out of Afghanistan is depressing and occasionally enraging, but when I see Seymour Hersh's byline attached to a story, I make sure to read it even though I know it will probably be both depressing and enraging. This story is no exception. It seems "the good guys" are now executing prisoners on the battlefield, or at least that is the story that has been relayed to Hersh by U.S. troops.
I won't argue that Hersh is infallible -- no one is -- but he is one of the best reporters working today and his track record from My Lai to Abu Ghraib is pretty impressive.
This isn't a story, at least not yet. This comes from a talk Hersh gave at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva on April 24, 2010.
"Where else would you go when you have an ax to grind?"
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
"If they run, they're VC. If they don't run, they're well-disciplined VC"
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Rumors of a coup
Would someone kindly light a fire under Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe and explain to them that they don't have to let Stephen Harper steal their lunch money and give the entire country a wedgie? Word is now that Stephen Harper is going to try to progue Parliament again until after the Olympics rather than submit to an order by the House of Commons to turn over uncensored documents in the Afghan prisoner investigation. Doing so would allow the Conservatives to take control of the Senate in the new year, so while it would mean a few of their bills die on the order paper, it would allow them to blatantly defy the will of Parliament and dodge the Afghan prisoner scandal in the short term.
I can't believe I need to haul this out again so soon.
Monday, March 02, 2009
That was then, this is now
Stephen "Mucho Macho" Harper in 2006:
and from the same month, back in Ottawa:
Nietzschean ubermench that he fancies himself, he even thought that the occasional dead soldier was a good thing for the military, since anything that didn't kill them all, only made them stronger - though to be fair, Harper's attitude in this regard is hardly limited to the Canadian military.
But what is this? What light through yonder seive-like cranium breaks?
Stephen "Bring'em Home" Harper March 1, 2009:
Canada PM says West won't beat Afghan insurgency
Associated Press
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Western forces alone won't defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and that the U.S. must have a viable exit plan before asking other countries to do more there.
OTTAWA—Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Western forces alone won't defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and that the U.S. must have a viable exit plan before asking other countries to do more there.
"Frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency," Harper said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN. "My reading of Afghanistan history is that's it's probably had an insurgency forever of some kind."
Canadian and other NATO troops have made some gains against the insurgents over the years but those gains are not irreversible and the overall success has been modest, Harper said.
"What has to happen in Afghanistan is we have to have an Afghan government that is capable of managing that insurgency," he said. If a foreign power is perceived as the source of authority, "it will always have a significant degree of opposition," he said.
You might have thought of that 100 or so lives ago, Steverino. You are finally conceding that our prescence there was pointless all along, just as the Americans are preparing to double their numbers there and possibly try for something other than a stalemate. Well timed sir!
I guess that now that you've abandoned the sunken costs argument ("we can't ever leave or our soldiers will have died in vain") we can expect the knuckle-draggers at SDA and the kill'em-all-and-let-God-sort'em-out caucus of the Blogging Tories to follow in lockstep and tell us about how they've been against the war all along and what Wanda Watkins can do with her grief. Someone should have stapled this to the PM's forehead a year ago. I guess you don't support the troops after all. Or could it be that those who have been saying the best way to support them is to bring them home were right after all?
As usual, Dr. Dawg says it better.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Openness and accountability
for thee, but not for me
From Canadian Press via the Mop & Pail:
Prisoner probe to continue despite government efforts to stop it
MURRAY BREWSTER
THE CANADIAN PRESS
April 14, 2008 at 6:40 PM EDT
OTTAWA — The head of the Military Police Complaints Commission vowed Monday to continue looking into Canada's handling of prisoners in Afghanistan, despite a legal effort by the government to kill the investigation.
Chairman Peter Tinsley said he's “surprised and disappointed” the federal Conservative government has decided to go to court seeking a judicial review.
Justice Department lawyers filed an application with Federal Court on Friday, arguing the independent commission doesn't have the jurisdiction to either investigate or hold a hearing into the handling of prisoners.
“It's especially surprising given the fact that the government did not challenge our jurisdiction a year ago when we first launched our investigation,” Mr. Tinsley said.
Read the whole thing. Just what is it the government is so afraid will come out?
Alison has a more comprehensive post on Afghanistan up over at the Beaver