What’s with Jack and his pack?

I’m fully aware of the need for the contrarion opinion in any democracy, for any nation to prosper in a free and open way, we need the debate of those who may not see things as the mainstream do, or for that matter may in fact reflect a few of the concerns that the mainstream may have on the issues of the day..

It’s an essential thing to welcome that debate, listen to all sides of it and then make a calm and rational decision on the matter in question. Providing the information you are receiving is in itself lucid and based on fact.

And that brings us to the latest statements from those in the NDP. Events of the last few days leave one with more than a few questions about what the NDP believes or understands. After today, I have no idea where Jack Layton and his fellow NDPers seem to be going in their approach to the current debate over our presence in Afghanistan. More worrisome is whether they even understand what makes Canada tick anymore.

Best case scenario is that their recent comments were rather poorly timed; worst case scenario is that they don’t have a clue about what they’re talking about.

With Canadian soldiers suffering some of the worst casualties since they began their involvement in the NATO operation in Afghanistan, the NDP came out with a couple of unfortunate statements that call into question their capability of discussing anything larger than health care and one day ditching the monarchy.

The first one came from Layton himself, who when he wasn’t calling for Canada to leave Afghanistan by February, seemed to suggest that a dialogue, not military action, is what was needed with the Taliban.

Now I understand the NDP’s reticence over any foreign involvements, it is and has always been one of the key planks of their being since they changed names from the CCF.

But engaging in a dialogue with the Taliban doesn’t seem like a plan that would be of benefit to the people of Afghanistan, who at last report we were over there to help out. I’m not too sure how many Afghans wish to have the Taliban involved in their daily lives again, given the history of their governance prior to 2001. Those days brought much misery for a people that have had more than their fair share of it over the years.

Under the Taliban, women and girls had basically no rights what so ever, they weren’t allowed to take part in formal education and freedom of expression was more than just frowned upon. The Taliban brought forward that wonderful period of isolationism that saw anything not to their belief eradicated, toppled and blown up, in short anything that was contrary to their teachings was destroyed. Soccer stadiums were the site of mass executions, normally for “crimes” that in other civilizations would merit jail time at worst and just a societal tsk tsking in others.

I wonder what the people living, or tying to live in Afghanistan might think of the leader of the NDP’s vision for better days. Somehow sitting down to discuss things with a group with a reputation such as the Taliban has doesn’t seem like a plan that would take you too far.

But I’ll give him credit for at least staying true to his socialist roots and trying to find a non violent way to end what is an ugly and worrisome thing. A war far from home, causing much heartbreak for the families of Canadians in harms way.

The problem is he gives mixed messages, two weeks ago he was demanding that Canada take on a peacekeeping role in Lebanon, a noble cause if only we had the troops he seems to think we have. Then he opined that we should leave Afghanistan and be sent to Somalia, which is about to enter its own dark period, as the Darfur crisis morphs into a humanitarian disaster.

Layton believes we could stem the tide of what is surely to come. Perhaps he’s right and we’d make a difference, but the idea of dumping the Afghans for the cause of Somalia seems well, just a bit confusing. The oppressors in Darfur are cut from the same cloth of those that roamed in Kandahar and Kabul, so one wonders what makes one mission just and the other unworthy. And again it comes down to the number of troops avaialbe for all these adventures.

This brings us to the ramblings of the NDP’s Nanamio-Cowichan riding association and their impression of just what Canada is doing in Afghanistan. While most Canadians are under the impression we are there to try and make things better for Afghanis, the Nanaimo-Cowichan folks have decided that Canadian Soldiers are nothing but terrorists. It’s a point of view that they put down on paper as part of an agenda item at the upcoming NDP convention in Quebec City. Terrorists! In black and white, in print and available to all, that is until it was suddenly pulled from convention debate.

The statement, part of the party’s resolution to end its combat role in the current hostilities in that area went as follows: “In such a situation, Canadian troops end up acting like terrorists, destroying communities, killing and maiming innocent people,”

As the NDP of Nanimo-Cowichan were drafting their preamble, Canadian soldiers were facing dangers and potential horror that the NDP riding association will probably never have to ponder. Instead, comfortable as they are in their west coast digs, they were busy making plans for a weekend of policy wonking in Old Quebec. They were planning trips to restaurants and bistros ready to sample the charms of the city, all while taking a cheap political shot at one of Canada’s most beloved institutions, the Armed Forces.

In a brilliant move for this bunch, their statement was officially withdrawn this afternoon, but only after feeling the heat of the national press. As they back tracked and tried to spin their troublesome wording this afternoon, they said that they “in no way intended to suggest that our Canadian Forces personnel were in any way associated with terrorism.”

Well if not, they sure have a strange way of turning a phrase.

All of this just paints the NDP as fringe players in the debate all of a sudden, their opinions almost laughable. And that’s unfortunate, they had a role to play in this debate, a vision that is decidedly different from the Conservatives and the Liberals (at least those Liberals that began the troop movements to Afghanistan) and thus should be presented for consideration.

People respect those with core beliefs; the strength of our country is the opportunity to put your thoughts out for discussion, you may not win many converts but at least you’ll get a hearing.

However, it would be helpful if those comments were possibly a bit better thought out and reflected reality and not some bizarre theories that just paint you as a bunch of lunatics. The thing is if you come across like an idiot, then people will assume you’re an idiot.

Suggesting that Canadian soldiers are acting like terrorists, at a time when they are on a mission to help a troubled land and suffering mounting casualties while they do it certainly places the Nanaimo-Cowichan branch of the NDP brand into the idiot pile.

We’ll see who else plans on joining them this weekend in Quebec City.