CANADIANS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO QUESTION OUR ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN

Re: 'Canadian soldiers are fighting and dying for drug lords'
(Letter, Sept. 25)

I agree with what the letter writer says regarding the situation in
Afghanistan.

I would like to add to the comment made that, under the Taliban,
opium production had been reduced by 98 per cent. In 2001, the George
W. Bush administration rewarded the Taliban government with a gift of
$43 million for declaring opium growing is against the will of God.
The American government conceded they were aware that enforcement of
the ban on opium growth was imprisonment or worse, but the Taliban
was an ally in the war on drugs, and the religious connection didn't
go unnoticed either.

This was at the very same time that, furious over Afghanistan's
sheltering of Osama bin Laden, the people of this embattled nation
were suffering from U.S.-imposed sanctions and international isolation.

Thousands of Afghans were starving, hundreds of thousands had become
refugees in their own country, women of Afghanistan were living under
a reign of terror, and basic human rights and freedoms were being
trampled in the name of religion.

I doubt there are any Canadians who don't support our troops. But how
they got there and under what guise is what many Canadians feel
requires closer scrutiny.

For Prime Minister Stephen Harper to hide behind the statement that
not supporting the Afghan mission means not supporting our troops is
cowardly and offensive. Canada is suffering casualties in
Afghanistan, and Canadians have every right to question for whom and why.