Today our friends stand knee deep in a ditch of sewage infested water and watch as their last hope for a safe return to Canada takes off from Kabul airport.
First they were told to apply in-country at Canadian consulates and the embassy. But we closed them.
Then they were told to apply online, on long, complex English-only forms. But email and Internet became intermittent.
Then they were told to leave their houses and run the Taliban gauntlet of checkpoints to the Kabul airport where they were to wear red and jump up and down and yell “Canada” and maybe someone would hear them. They were ignored. They might as well have rolled up to the nearest Taliban check-point and said, “Hey there, I worked for the infidels.”
Some of those we left behind are Canadian citizens with papers to prove it.
Meanwhile, back in Canada, Trudeau and O’Toole were squabbling over whether O’Toole did or didn’t say he would let the private sector into health care. (FYI, it’s already there.)
That we abandoned those who served with us is beyond unprofessional. It’s beyond incompetent. It’s criminal. It’s a reputation-shattering deed.
There was plenty of time to act. When Donald Trump struck his deal with the Taliban a year and a half ago, the writing was on the wall. Afghans have defeated three empires – the British in the 1800s, the Russians in the 1970s and now, the Americans.
For that matter, back in 2001, Jean Chretien could have told George Bush ‘Hell no, we won’t go.’ And Stephen Harper could have returned us to our old and honourable role as peacekeepers instead of pretending we were a nation of warriors.
We spent two decades making war on a nation of shepherds and farmers. And then we left behind our friends. We deserve whatever level of hell awaits us.
There is no excuse, no spin that can cover this dirty business. We’re in Alice in Wonderland country here folks, where “logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead. And the White Knight is talking backwards. And the Red Queen's off with her head.” And the Walrus sheds crocodile tears on a sunny beach at midnight where “no birds were flying overhead — there were no birds to fly.”
David McLaren, Neyaashiinigmiing
References
Last flight from Kabul carrying Canadian nationals leaves 5 days ahead of US withdrawal of August 31. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-video-shows-canadian-special-forces-seemingly-ignoring-afghan-refugees/
Canadians stranded outside Kabul airport forced to stand knee-deep in 'sewage water' https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canada-kabul-global-affairs-evacuation-1.6152849
Lyrics to ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane https://genius.com/Jefferson-airplane-white-rabbit-lyrics
‘Walrus and the Carpenter’ by Lewis Carroll https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43914/the-walrus-and-the-carpenter-56d222cbc80a9
(ISAF photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Collins, U.S. Navy)
