<html>
<body>
<h1><font size=4><b>Canada must withdraw troops from Afghanistan
immediately</b></font></h1><font size=3>December 03, 2009 By <b>Malalai
Joya</b> <br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://www.straight.com/article-273047/vancouver/malalai-joya-canada-must-withdraw-troops-afghanistan-immediately" eudora="autourl">
http://www.straight.com/article-273047/vancouver/malalai-joya-canada-must-withdraw-troops-afghanistan-immediately<br>
<br>
<br>
</a></font><font size=3>I have just completed a two-week speaking tour
across Canada, bringing a message to the great people of this country:
The people of Afghanistan are fed up with the occupation of their country
and with the corrupt, Mafia-state of Hamid Karzai and the warlords and
drug lords backed by NATO. <br><br>
On behalf of the suffering people of Afghanistan, I offer my condolences
to the families here who have lost their loved ones. I believe these
fallen soldiers, themselves, are the victims of the wrong policy of your
government. The families of Afghan civilians killed in this war share
your feelings of loss. <br><br>
If we turn these sorrows into strength, we can end this war. Bringing the
troops home at the end of 2011 is too late; the troops should be
withdrawn as soon as possible, before more Afghan and Canadian lives are
needlessly lost. <br><br>
Today, it has become an open secret that the Canadian government of
Stephen Harper has been complicit in the torture of countless innocent
Afghans. This is just one reason people in Kandahar and across my country
are tired of this war. <br><br>
It is clear now that the real motive of the U.S. and its allies, hidden
behind the so-called "war on terror", was to convert
Afghanistan into a military base in Central Asia and the capital of the
world's opium drug trade. Ordinary Afghan people are being used in this
chess game, and western taxpayers' money and the blood of soldiers is
being wasted on this agenda that will only further destabilize the
region. <br><br>
The recent so-called election in Afghanistan tells you all you need to
know about what kind of "democracy" has been imposed by the
occupation. It is ridiculous to Afghans that the Harper government and
Defence Minister Peter MacKay have called this process a "successful
election". <br><br>
Even the cats of Afghanistan laugh at this kind of statement, because
everyone knows that this was the most fraudulent election possible.
Before the vote, people on the streets predicted the outcome with a
proverb, "It will be the same donkey with a new saddle." In the
end, in fact, we have seen that even the saddle-Karzai-is not new.
<br><br>
Now that Karzai has been inaugurated again, the nature of his government
is more obvious than ever. Both of his new vice-president, Fahim and
Khalili, are warlords with the blood of innocents on their hands. In
Kandahar, where Canadian troops have been stationed for years, Karzai's
brother is reported to be involved in drug trafficking, and the <i>New
York Times</i> recently reported that he's been receiving regular
payments from the U.S. CIA. <br><br>
So do not be deceived by talk of Karzai cleaning up corruption. His
appointment of a new anticorruption team is a case of the rabbit being
put in charge of the carrots. <br><br>
Torture, drug trafficking, the continued rule of warlords and
fundamentalists-these are the only things that this war has brought
Afghans. Today, our people are being vicitimized by two enemies: the
occupation forces bombing us from the sky, and the warlords and their
Taliban brothers-in-creed. <br><br>
If the troops withdraw, it will be easier for Afghans to fight one enemy
and to determine our own future. It is the duty of the Afghan people to
work for freedom and democracy; these values can never be donated to us
by the very foreign powers who-after nearly three decades of funding
various fundamentalists are arming warlords and other criminals-are
responsible for many of the problems Afghanistan faces today. <br><br>
While I am opposed to the policy of the Canadian government in
Afghanistan, I have been very moved by the support of ordinary people
across this country, from Victoria to Halifax. Having spoken to big
public meetings in cities right across this country, it is clear that the
Canadian people are fed up with their government's policy in Afghanistan.
Let's raise our voices together to end this unjust and devastating war.
<br><br>
<br><br>
<i>Malalai Joya was the youngest woman elected to the Afghan Parliament
in 2005. She has recently completed a cross-Canada book tour in support
of her new
<a href="http://www.straight.com/article-270310/vancouver/afghan-activist-wants-natos-mission-end">
political memoir</a>, written with Vancouver writer and activist Derrick
O'Keefe,</i> A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan
Who Dared to Raise Her Voice. <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>