Canadian Prime Minister: We’ll Never Win In Afghanistan

• March 3, 2009

Good thing Obama didn’t ask Stephen Harper for more troops while he was up in Canada.

Remember way back in the early days of the Obama administration when the president went to Canada on his first foreign trip and as soon as Afghanistan came up in the concluding news conference, the well-briefed new U.S. leader pre-empted a key question by saying he had not asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper for more Canadian troops?
Good thing.
Because, as it turns out, Prime Minister Harper thinks victory for the allies in Afghanistan is simply not going to happen. In a fascinating and surprisingly candid interview with CNN’s ever-thoughtful Fareed Zakaria on “GPS,” here’s what the leader of the United States’ closest military ally there said:
“In fact, my own judgment, Fareed, is, quite frankly, we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency.”
Coming just days after Obama ordered 17,000 additional U.S. combat troops into that forever-fighting land as a mere holding action, pending further study and possible additional deployments, that’s got to be a stunner to the new White House team.

Given that The One just sent a bunch more troops to Afghanistan, I doubt this comment will be nearly as important to the media as it would have been under Bush.
Personally, I think Harper is wrong. I think we can win in Afghanistan, just like we won in Iraq. And I actually think that Obama’s “troop surge” into Afghanistan is a good first step into that direction. What will be telling is whether or not Obama has the sort of leadership Bush did to stick to what he’s set out to do even in the face of harsh international and domestic criticism.
My guess is that he isn’t made of that stern of stuff, but I hope (for Afghanistan’s sake) that I’m wrong.

Tags: Domestic Issues, International Scene, Politics, War On Terror

http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

I think we can win in Afghanistan, just like we won in Iraq.

I agree. It’s fairly certain we will “win” in Afghanistan, just like we “won” in Iraq.
Jack

a citizen:

I see your cut-and-paste skills are pretty good.

Actually having something worthwhile to say—not so much.
DBdowner

Buzz,

Are you insane? Retreating inward will result in blows to our cowering skulls. The rage because of envy this won’t change until we have less than them in every category they dwell on. Pencils ready. If we cut and run from world stage at all, get ready to take notes.
Buzz

So the Iraqis being “happy” was worth 4,300 Americans dead, over 100,000 injured, 1,000,000,000 dollars spent and then a hardy “get the fuck out”? Dude you are very easily pleased. Bin ladin is the only one winning, bleeding us of our money. Cut and run now, all the way back to American soil. Every troop in the world. Germany, Japan, South Korea, everywhere.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

So, r108, are you saying that we should be “pro-war”? Being “for war” sounds repugnant, if not down right evil.
robert108

Half a million dead.

A leftie lie, which has been thoroughly debunked.
Shadowboxer

So now the conservatives want to cut and run in Afghanistan.
sayanything-5371

Any war can be won. You have to totally break your enemy’s will to fight or carry on. These PC wars that are fought by rear echelon arm chair dipsticks can’t be won. LBJ was one of these idiots. He tried to micromanage down to what bombing mission could do what where in the Nam. George Patton, US Grant, Dwight Eisenhower knew how to fight and win. They didn’t worry about collateral damage and winning hearts and minds and all that PC bullshit. They knew that winning was the only thing that mattered.
Jack

…just like we won in Iraq.

Define “won.”

Half a million dead. 2 million refugees. Infrastructure all but destroyed. Little power or clean drinking water outside the green zone. A fraud-based gov’t that wants the invaders out NOW.

Is that your idea of “winning?”

If not, what exactly do you think we “won?”
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

And John Stuart Mill would shit himself to see his words so twisted. Iraq and Afghanistan have nothing to do with his point.

But war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer.

…and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice…

Occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are not good causes for US.
docdave

One of the most serious problems in Afghanistan is that the terrorists (Taliban) have a safe haven in Pakistan.
sayanything-5371

You’re right, Will. Who cares? We’re Americans, and we can do whatever the fuck we want. We make the rules. We tell everyone else what to do. If they don’t listen to US, we’ll fuck â€˜em up. America, fuck yeah!

Now your talking sense.
sayanything-5371

Rugby Reader, this is for you.

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

John Stuart Mill…
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

We can’t win?

That doesn’t sound like any Marine I’ve ever known.

Those who’ve been reborn in the fires of Parris Island, San Diego or Quantico know that it is their task to locate, close with and destroy the enemy, or, simply put:

Find ‘em and fuck ‘em up.

But what we’re hearing from this poseur are the mewlings of some cowardly, defeatist Leftard snot.

Beat your face, shitbird.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

your boy Bush totally ignored Afghanistan

Denial is not just a river in Egypt!
carrick

Buzz:

Cut and run now, all the way back to American soil. Every troop in the world. Germany, Japan, South Korea, everywhere.

Isolationist idiot.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

BTW, zig, you might want to check your sources on that Stephen Harper/US Marine thing. I don’t think it’s true.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Oh, how the simpletons fail to see the forest because of the trees…
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

So now the conservatives want to cut and run in Afghanistan.

Is like one of our left wing wackos in the house or senate.
Shadowboxer

Hey, Mickey, your boy Bush totally ignored Afghanistan. So who are you to talk!
Mickey

17,000 American troops in Afghanistan isn’t enough to accomplish anything. This is just a ruse by obama to look like he actually cares. The Canadian Prime minister is correct only because obamas efforts are superfiscial at best.

It is silly to think that this punk ass liberal could be commander in chief.
Rezistik

He is right, we can’t win Afghanistan. There is nothing to win. You can’t fight a form of war…the war on terror is foolish. That’s like having a war on religion or sex or drugs…you can’t win.
robert108

Oh, how the simpletons fail to see the forest because of the trees…

You consistently have that problem, antiwar puke.
docdave

is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men then himself.

Sure fits rr and some other leftards that post here.
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

You’re right, Will. Who cares? We’re Americans, and we can do whatever the fuck we want. We make the rules. We tell everyone else what to do. If they don’t listen to US, we’ll fuck ‘em up. America, fuck yeah!
http://norseberserker.blogspot.com/ Rugby Reader

Cool… Harper was a US Marine. Whodda thunk? Ed McMahon, Ted Williams, Lee Trevino, Senator Jim Webb, and Stephen Harper, all jarheads.
Mickey

Shadowboxer,

The Taliban are not the threat that alQueda were. Besides, Osama is in Pakistan not Afghanistan. Two years from now Obama will pull out of Afghanistan in the middle of the night. He will claim Osama has repented or some other BS line. If we see increased death toll of American soldiers in Afghanistan Obama will pull out earlier than two years.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

No Rugby, you are the shitbird defeatist poseur.

Canadians?

Well there are good and bad Canadians.

I’d swap Alberta for Massachusetts. Better yet, send all Leftards North to hang out with the draft dodgers and invite patriots to the USA.
sayanything-5371

Occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are not good causes for US.

That’s just your opinion. Who cares.
sayanything-5371

Iraq and Afghanistan have nothing to do with his point.

That’s just your opinion too. Who cares.
http://tatertotsforthemasses.blogspot.com/ Houston

I agree, more troops in Afghanistan is a good first step. He also needs to give the generals in charge the freedom to handle the fight the way they see fit.

If Obama continues to make sure the troops have what they need, we will absolutely win.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

So now the conservatives want to cut and run in Afghanistan.

Not this conservative. And Harper is hardly, by any stretch, an American conservative. He’s conservative for his country, but not conservative by our standards.

Frankly, I support OBama’s troop surge into Afghanistan. As I mentioned in the post, I hope he sticks with it.
sayanything-2483

Define “won.”

[]
sayanything-2483

Thanks for the cut and paste compliment. What you think is worthwhile is irrelevant Jack/Dino.

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Canadian Prime Minister: We’ll Never Win In Afghanistan

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