USA

Friday August 27, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 27, 2021

As the evacuation window closes, Trudeau should focus on the Afghan crisis

Who will be left behind?

As the Taliban’s evacuation clock races to its final, terrible hour, we are left feeling helpless in our minute-by-minute prayers for the Canadian citizens and permanent residents still on the ground in Afghanistan and the thousands of Afghans promised safe harbour in a grand resettlement plan.

The pulse races. Yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could not have sounded more of a naif when he said, after a meeting of G7 leaders Tuesday, that “we will continue to put pressure on the Taliban to allow people to leave the country in safety.”

November 17, 2015

To state the obvious: he’s not bargaining from a position of strength.

And to restate past assertions in this space, evacuation efforts have been late, slow and confused. How many more evacuees could have been assisted if the government had moved with speed?

It was no comfort to listen to a triumvirate of Liberal ministers Wednesday – Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau – attempting to express hope and optimism for better days ahead, the better life that Canada offers. In real time, the government’s so-called corridors of protection have not been up to the task of shepherding the desperate into safety at Kabul’s airport.

August 24, 2021

A bombardment of pleas and videos from those desperately trying to flee will continue to rain down.

And in yet another penny-dropping moment, it has finally sunk in that with U.S. forces scheduled to evacuate from their longest war by Aug. 31, a process that will take days, the last opportunity for a Canadian supported exit may be just hours away. And that’s assuming the risk of attack against U.S. troops by the ISIS affiliate — and Taliban enemy — ISIS-K doesn’t become a reality. U.S. President Joe Biden defined that risk this week as acute and growing.

In Wednesday’s press conference it fell to Marc Garneau to acknowledge the obvious: that there’s a “possibility” that the Canadian effort will fail to successfully complete its rescue mission. We’re on the job, Garneau said, “even though there may be some election going on.”

It’s not an easy hand that Trudeau has been dealt. It would be folly to argue otherwise. That the Taliban briskly took the capital on the same day as the election was called should be material for Trudeau’s memoirs. That’s far in the future. How the Biden administration failed to anticipate the Taliban’s lightning-fast takeover will be one for the history books.

July 15, 2021

In the instant, it’s obvious that the Afghanistan crisis has emerged as a trip wire for Trudeau, one that’s becoming more barbed with each passing moment. A month has passed since the government backtracked on its ill-considered 72-hour deadline for Afghan interpreters and others who worked in support of Canadians to file resettlement paperwork. That shemozzle revealed wonky bureaucracy at work.

And it was a signal to Trudeau to prioritize the Afghan file. This he has failed to do.

That has left a broad opening for opposition leaders. When Conservative party Leader Erin O’Toole charges, as he did Wednesday, that Trudeau failed to take timely action on Afghanistan months ago, and that the prime minister put the political interests of the Liberal party ahead of the crisis, it sounds discordant to hear Trudeau on the same day pledging to raise corporate taxes on the big banks.

The remedy would be for Trudeau to get off the campaign trail and high tail it back to Ottawa. The next 48 hours will be crucial to the outcome of the Afghanistan crisis. Getting updates, as the prime minister calls them, as he travels through Hamilton, or Winnipeg or Surrey, B.C., releasing the Liberal platform drip by drip, is not the mien of a seasoned G7 leader. (Toronto Star Editorial) 

 

Wednesday August 18, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 18, 2021

Russia and the U.S. share the blame for the terrible fate facing Afghan people

In the year 2000, five years after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, nobody elsewhere cared what happened in that landlocked, benighted country. It was ruled by angry rural fanatics who tormented the local people with their demented rules for proper “Islamic” behaviour, but it was not a military or diplomatic priority for anybody.

July 15, 2021

It is about to return to that isolated and isolationist existence. Neither then nor now do the Taliban even have a foreign policy. They are more like a franchise operation whose various elements share certain basic principles — e.g. foreigners, women and democracy are bad — but whose members are primarily focused on local issues and personal ambitions.

This is not the first time that the country has been in such a mess, and about the only useful thing that the current lot of foreign invaders can do on their way out is offer refuge abroad to as many as possible of the Afghans who trusted their promises. That will certainly not be more than 10 or 20 per cent of those who earned their protection.

The Russians and the Americans share the blame for this catastrophe. It’s hard to believe that an uninvaded Afghanistan could have peacefully evolved into a prosperous democratic society with equal rights for all, but “uninvaded” is the only condition in which it could conceivably have approached that goal.

There was the germ of such a locally-led modernization process in the overthrow of the king in 1973 and the proclamation of an Afghan republic. Other Muslim-majority states have made that transition successfully — Turkey did, for example, despite its current government — but the Afghan attempt did not prosper.

Violent resistance by traditional social and religious groups started at once, and the tottering new republican regime was overthrown in 1978 by a bloody military coup. The young officers who seized power were Marxists who imposed a radical reform program.

February 2, 2019

They gave women the vote and equal access to education, carried out land reforms, and even attacked the role of religion. By 1979, the Marxist regime was facing a massive revolt in conservative rural areas, and one faction asked for Soviet military help.

The moribund Communist leadership in Moscow agreed, and 100,000 Soviet troops entered the country. The subsequent war devastated the country for a decade — with much help from the United States.

“The day that the Soviets officially crossed the (Afghan) border, I wrote to president Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the U.S.S.R. its Vietnam War,” said former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. He immediately started sending money and weapons to the rural rebels who later became the Taliban.

It took 10 years, $40 billion of clandestine U.S. military aid, and around a million Afghan dead, but by 1989 the Taliban and their various Islamist rivals forced the Russians to pull out. Shortly afterwards the Soviet Union collapsed, and Brzezinski arrogantly but implausibly claimed credit for it.

“What is most important to the history of the world?” he asked. “The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?” 

In reality, the Soviet Union was heading for collapse anyway, but the “stirred-up Muslims” turned out to be a fairly large problem.

The Taliban took power in Kabul in 1996 after a long all-against-all war between the various Islamist groups, and ruled most of the country badly and brutally for five years. Then an Arab Islamist called Osama bin Laden abused the hospitality of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar by launching the 9/11 attacks against the United States in 2001.

November 14, 2001

An American invasion was inevitable after 9/11 because some spectacular retaliation was politically necessary. That led to another 20 years of war: the Taliban against another set of foreigners who understood little about the country’s recent history and why it made local people profoundly mistrustful of “helpful” foreigners.

Even now Americans don’t realize how closely they have recapitulated the Soviet experience in the country. The ending that is now unfolding was foreordained from the start, although it has taken twice as long to arrive because the United States is much richer than Russia. Nevertheless, the aftermath will also be the same.

The various factions of the Taliban will split, mostly on ethnic lines, and another civil war of uncertain length will follow. The rule of the winners will be as cruel and arbitrary as it was last time. And the rest of the world will rapidly lose interest, because Afghanistan won’t pose a serious threat to anywhere else. (Gwynne Dyer – The Hamilton Spectator)  

 

Thursday July 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 22, 2021

U.S. border to remain closed until at least Aug. 21

The U.S. land border will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21, according to a renewal order issued by the American government Wednesday.

June 23, 2021

In a notice pre-published in the U.S. Federal Register, the U.S. government says that while vaccination rates have improved, opening the land border to non-essential travel still poses too great a risk.

“Given the outbreak and continued transmission and spread of COVID-19 within the United States and globally, the Secretary has determined that the risk of continued transmission and spread of the virus associated with COVID-19 between the United States and Canada poses an ongoing specific threat to human life or national interests,” says the U.S. government notice.

The new order expires one minute before midnight on Aug. 21.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement that offered little additional explanation.

April 18, 2020

“To decrease the spread of COVID-19, including the Delta variant, the United States is extending restrictions on non-essential travel at our land and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico through August 21, while ensuring the continued flow of essential trade and travel,” wrote DHS spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández.

“DHS is in constant contact with Canadian and Mexican counterparts to identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was also tight-lipped.

“We rely on the guidance of our health and medical experts, not on the actions of other countries,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Cincinnati.

“We created these working groups so we can have an open line of communication, discussion on what the criteria look like, what measures needed to be met. Those are ongoing and of course, we continue to be briefed internally as well.”

June 27, 2015

The American order comes only a few days after the Canadian government announced its land border would open to fully vaccinated U.S. citizens on Aug. 9 and to fully vaccinated travellers from other countries on Sept. 7.

Speaking to reporters today, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said he has been working closely with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who informed him of the U.S. government’s plan to keep its land border closed to non-essential travel.

“There are a number of considerations that I know that the American government is currently undertaking with respect to their borders and that work will continue,” he said.

Blair said the U.S. policy doesn’t affect Canada’s decision to open its border next month.

“Our responsibility, of course, is to look after the best interests of Canadians and to follow the advice of our public health officials,” he said. “That’s precisely what we have done.” (CBC) 

 

Tuesday July 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 20, 2021

“I’m Getting the Word Out”: Inside the Feverish Mind of Donald Trump

March 26, 2019

Seventy days had passed since Donald Trump left Washington against his will. On March 31, 2021, we ventured to Mar-a-Lago, where he still reigned as king of Republican politics. We arrived late that afternoon for our audience with the man who used to be president and were ushered into an ornate sixty-foot-long room that functioned as a kind of lobby leading to the club’s patio. A model of Air Force One painted in Trump’s proposed redesign—a flat red stripe across the middle, a navy belly, a white top, and a giant American flag on the tail—was proudly displayed on the coffee table facing the entrance. It was a prop disconnected from reality.  Trump’s vision never came to be; the fleet now in use by President Biden still bears the iconic baby blue-and-white livery designed by Jacqueline Kennedy.

“Used to be” is not a phrase anyone dares use to describe the president inside his Palm Beach castle. Here, beneath the gold-leaf ceiling of winged griffins and crystal chandeliers, Trump still rules, surrounded day and night by applauding fans, obsequious courtiers, and dutiful servants. At the perfectly manicured Mar-a-Lago, none of the disgrace that marked the end of his presidency pierces Trump’s reality. Here, he and his aides work to maintain the gospel according to Trump, with the most important revelations being that Donald Trump was the greatest president of all time and was unjustly denied a second term.

January 22, 2019

Trump had invited us to Mar-a-Lago to interview him for this book. He had declined an interview for our first book about his presidency, and when A Very Stable Genius was published in January 2020, attacked us personally and branded our reporting a work of fiction. But Trump was quick to agree to our request this time. He sought to curate history.

As we sat for the interview, the former president’s press secretary presented us copies of a bound volume: 1,000 Accomplishments of President Donald J. Trump: Highlights of the First Term. On the back cover is an American flag, the presidential seal, and Trump’s thick, jagged signature. The book totals 92 pages and is organized with chapters dedicated to the economy, tax cuts, deregulation, trade, and so on.

January 24, 2017

Trump walked into the room flanked by a couple of plainclothed Secret Service agents, a much smaller detail than he once had as president. He wore his customary dark suit and tie, his face covered with bronze makeup. He sat in his preferred position, a plush armchair of ivory brocade facing the entrance where guests arrive, with us on a sofa to his right. Behind him was a huge window looking out to the Atlantic Ocean; in front of him, the patio facing Lake Worth.

“This is the biggest, the best, the most acreage, the most everything—the ocean, the lake, it fronts both,” the ever-boasting Trump said. “Mar-a-Lago is ocean-to-lake. Did you know that? Mar-a-Lago, ocean to lake. It’s the only place. See that window? That window, when that was built, is the largest pane of glass in the world, okay?”

June 23, 2021

Trump started the interview by pointing out his enduring and unrivaled power within the Republican Party. He explained that he didn’t intend to follow the path of former presidents, who largely bowed out of the nitty-gritty of party politics. He was proud to say he genuinely enjoys this sport he found so late in life, and believes he plays it better than anyone else. The parade of Republican politicians flocking to Mar-a-Lago all spring to kiss his ring had both energized him, he said, and proved the value of his stock.

“We have had so many, and so many are coming in,” Trump said. “It’s been pretty amazing. You see the numbers. They need the endorsement. I don’t say this in a braggadocious way, but if they don’t get the endorsement, they don’t win.” 

But future elections were not front and center in his mind. A past election was. Trump was fixated on his loss in 2020, returning to this wound repeatedly throughout the interview. 

April 29, 2020

“In a certain way, I had two presidencies,” he said. In the first, when the economy was roaring, Trump argued that he had been unbeatable, never mind that his approval rating was never higher than 46 percent in the Gallup poll during his first three years as president.

“I think it would be hard if George Washington came back from the dead and he chose Abraham Lincoln as his vice president, I think it would have been very hard for them to beat me,” Trump said.

Then, he lamented, came his second presidency: the pandemic killed his chances.

Trump seemed determined as well to convince us that he actually had won, and handily, had it not been for the many people who had wronged him—the “evil people” who conspired to deny him his rightful second term.

“The greatest fraud ever perpetrated in this country was this last election,” Trump said. “It was rigged and it was stolen. It was both. It was a combination, and Bill Barr didn’t do anything about it.”

Trump faulted not only his attorney general, but Vice President Pence for lacking the bravery to do what was right. (Continued: Vanity Fair)

The Journey of a Hero to the Island of Elba

A satirical depiction of the exile of the French Emperor Napoleon to the island of Elba in 1814. This was Napoleon’s first defeat by the Allied nations of the Sixth Coalition, including Britain, Prussia, and Russia. Less than a year after Napoleon was overthrown, he escaped from Elba and returned to France, forcing the Sixth Coalition to reform. The Allied armies marched against him, and Napoleon was finally and conclusively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Pub’d by J. Phillips, No. 32 Charles Street Hampstead road, May 1814. (Source: Age of Revolution) 

Thursday July 15, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 15, 2021

‘They want to annihilate us’: Afghan interpreter who helped Canada says life in danger from Taliban

Local interpreters who worked with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan are pleading for Canada’s help in immigrating after the U.S. military’s withdrawal has led to a resurgence of the Taliban.

February 2, 2019

Nearly all U.S. combat forces have left Afghanistan ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s confirmation that the American military operation in the country will officially end August 31, nearly 20 years since the Taliban was removed from power in Kabul.

News of the U.S troops’ departure, and their subsequent overnight abandonment of the Bagram Air Base, has spurred the Taliban to resurge and take back control of significant amounts of territory, capturing Spin Boldak – a strategic border with Pakistan – and one that Canadians fought and died to protect.

“We were there to do the fighting in the initial stages to help stabilize the situation [and] we did that,” Ret. Maj-Gen. David Fraser told CTV News. “We couldn’t stay there forever, as much as people wanted.”

Now as the Taliban nears Kabul, and has overtaken Kandahar’s Panjwai District, Ottawa has confirmed that it will continue sending humanitarian and developmental aid to Afghanistan – but for the interpreters left behind by Canadian, NATO and U.S. forces, time is running out to get them and their families to safety.

May 23, 2012

Many NATO allies like France and Germany have already begun or completed evacuations of the Afghans who have helped in various missions — Biden announced that the U.S. “Operation Allies Refuge” flights out of Afghanistan during the last week of July will be available for special immigrant visa applicants already in the process of applying to U.S. residency.

Canada, however, has not announced a similar endeavour.

At a press conference Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said of Canada’s duty to the interpreters overseas that Ottawa will “continue to work to ensure that we’re providing the right path.”

“I can assure you that our ministers are working on it,” he continued.

But critics say there is not enough federal action on the crisis.

Former Canadian major-generals submitted an open letter to Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino last week, warning that 115 former interpreters, cultural advisors and other locals and their families will face reprisals from the Taliban for helping Canadian troops and diplomats.

They called for the government to expedite the immigration process to bring them and their families to Canada, a sentiment echoed by a letter-writing campaign from Canadian veterans who also want to see the government “do right” by those who helped the troops overseas. (CTV)