Elizabeth May’s representation against the War on Afghanistan showed integrity for the Green Party’s progressive pacifist traditions

by David Stein

	Elizabeth May’s comments about the War in Afghanistan honoured anti-war traditions.

Former Green party candidate Beverley Woodfield along with other leaders in the Green Party of Canada, are leaving the fold in disgust, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports

She criticized federal party leader Elizabeth May on Wednesday for her comments after the release of a report on Canada’s role in Afghanistan.

She said she’d already let her party membership lapse and doesn’t intend to renew it.

Ms. Woodfield, who has unsuccessfully run for office provincially and municipally, said the federal Greens disrespected Canada’s troops when Ms. May said Tuesday that "the (report’s) recommendation of more ISAF forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a jihad. This, in turn, may feed the recruitment of suicide bombers and other insurgents," the Chronicle-Herald further documents.

The "Christian/Crusader" reference prompted the federal Conservatives to fire off a release condemning the Greens. Ms. May’s party shot back with a release criticizing the Tories for spinning the Greens’ message to suit their own agenda.

Ms. Woodfield, mother of Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, 24, who died in Afghanistan in 2005, said the initial release from the Greens was offensive.

"I fear that with the words (Ms. May) used, that she’s painted a target on the back of every uniformed member of NATO that’s over" in Afghanistan.

She had been the deputy leader of the provincial Greens but resigned over a disagreement centred on the party’s constitution.

The Conservatives accused the Greens of implying "that our troops, diplomats and aid workers are forcibly occupying Afghanistan when in fact they are there at the invitation of the Afghan government."

However, the Conservative Party’s comments ignore the fact that the Afghani government is no more independent from the U.S. Bush administration that Norway’s Vidkun Quisling government that had been anointed by Adolf Hilter’s Nazi Germany.

Learned Toronto Sun News correspondent Eric Margolis documents that the current Hamid Karzai led Afghanistan government is a “US-installed regime” which was installed by a “bogus election”. LINK

Eric Margolis further documents:

“Karzai rules only downtown Kabul, protected by 200 U.S. bodyguards, 17,000 U.S. troops and a token NATO force. His own people cannot be trusted to guard him from assassins. It costs Washington U.S. $1.6 billion monthly to keep Karzai in power- not including the multi-billion dollar, secret CIA budget for Afghanistan. Without the foreign troop’s bayonets, Karzai’s little puppet regime would quickly be swept away.” LINK

“In 2002, CIA got its Afghan `asset,’ Hamid Karzai, nominated president through a loya jirga that was as rigged as the one that promoted Najibullah.” LINK

Political attacks against Elizabeth’s May from within her Green Party have either been made by individuals who do not understand the historical traditions of the Green Party movement, or by reactionary infiltrators working on behalf of a political-military-industrial complex.

Let’s critically consider the facts as documented by investigative journalists and other critical writers.

The execution of the Afghanistan War is indeed lead by the U.S. President George W. Bush, who is an evangelical Christian, who has used messianic words like “crusade” to describe in Middle Eastern War agenda. Ms. May is simply further exposing this previously stated Judeo-Christian “crusade” that has also been supported by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has reportedly been a member of Northern Foundation. This Foundation also apparently presents themselves as Judeo-Christian Crusaders of “Western Civilization”, who are inspired by eugenics-related political thought. The people of Afghanistan who choose to engage in countervailing violence against the occupying forces associated with an apparent U.S. controlled government, are aware of the previous evangelical representations of their adversaries.

Eric Margolis and other learned critical investigative journalists reveal the idea that the Afghanistan war is about some noble mission to defend the human rights of Aghanis, or to protect American and global international security interests, in sheer propaganda. The war effort is an apparent agenda of greed for the consolidation of dwindling global supplies of oil, that is also designed to create conditions of instability, that can be used to legitimate more money for a political-military-industrial complex, and less for education, healthcare, and other social expenditures.

Elizabeth May, was simply attempting to defend the integrity of the Green Party as a movement with certain progressive traditions.

With a critical overview of the facts, and appreciation of Ms. May’s apparent concern for defending the political integrity of the Green Movement, she has nothing to apologize for, expect for perhaps continued unethical participation of Canadians into Afghanistan’s occupation.

Defending Green Party traditions

The Green Party of Canada documents that “the modern green movement started in Canada and around the world in the 1960s when the counter-culture movement launched the first mass rejection of consumer culture. Four decades later, the 60s values of peace, love and understanding have become the founding Green Party values of non-violence, social justice and ecological thinking.” LINK

The Green Party as a Canadian and international movement, has its roots in an ant-war and pacifist inspired tradition, as being inextricably associated with social and environmental consciousness.

Ms. May says that Green position on Afghanistan, is that party wants the United Nations to take over all aspects and bring in more troops from such Muslim countries as Malaysia.

Ms. May said the statements were intended to emphasize that Taliban insurgents were portraying NATO's presence in Afghanistan as a western Christian crusade against Islam, which it indeed, appears to be. The Green Party leader seems to recognize that the best way of protecting Canadian troops, that Ms. Woodfield seems to also desire, as do other rebelling Green Party members, is a complete replacement of Canadian combat troops, with peacemakers, who can help provide the healthcare support, and other assistance, that Afghanis need. Such an approach would create the substantive conditions for peace, alongside a government that is chosen by Afghanis, and not by U.S. Big Business interests.

However, violence continues in Afghanistan because Taliban supporters seem to know that peace appears to be the last thing on the mind of any government coalition that seeks to pursue pre-emptive war based upon fabricated scenarios of alleged “Weapons of Mass Destruction”. Such a government coalition, is not seeking peace, but instead is clearly desperate to wage war irrespective of public relations rhetoric disseminated through uncritical reporters from corporate media.

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