Canada ping!
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Posted on 05/30/2006 6:57:17 PM PDT by fanfan
OTTAWA
Insults, both deliberate and unintended, along with partisan sniping and skepticism marred Senate hearings on Afghanistan on Monday, as one senator called President Hamid Karzai a "stooge" and Canada's foreign affairs minister suggested Afghans live in houses unfit for cattle.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay got a rough ride in his first appearance before the Senate national security and defence committee, but the proceedings turned particularly ugly when Liberal Senator Peter Stollery hurled an insult at Karzai, Afghanistan's interim president, who MacKay said would soon be visiting Canada.
"You know Karzai, he's a stooge. He was put there by Americans. Everybody knows that," Stollery said.
"First of all, I don't believe President Karzai is a stooge," MacKay said.
"He can't be anything else," Stollery interjected, before fellow Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, who was chairing the hearing, cut him off.
"With respect," MacKay replied in an even tone, "he was democratically elected, and having met him, I find him to be a compelling, charismatic, dedicated person that wants to help his country."
MacKay recently visited Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Karzai in his presidential palace in Kabul.
In other testimony, MacKay recited a lengthy list of areas in which Canada and its international allies were trying to help Afghanistan, areas that included good governance, removing landmines, battling corruption and strengthening democratic institutions.
"Economic and social development," MacKay continued, before digressing.
"The infrastructure in that country -- having flown over both Kandahar and into Kabul, it's remarkable to see. It's like going back in time, I suspect, in seeing the state of that country. Many of these houses that people are living in (are) really not fit for cattle."
For the most part, MacKay put a positive spin on the gains made in Afghanistan, despite the growing Taliban insurgency in the south around Kandahar.
But the committee of Liberal and Conservative senators was not buying it, including an attempt by MacKay to put a positive spin on efforts to reduce Afghanistan's growing opium trade that he said produces 90 per cent of the world's heroin.
"When you read your presentation, there's a lot of optimism in it," Conservative Senator Norman Atkins said, before asking MacKay very bluntly:
"Is this a no-win situation?"
MacKay replied: "I don't believe in no-win. We're winning every day," in terms of lives and differences being made in the lives in individual Afghans.
Kenny challenged MacKay on why his government recently asked Parliament to vote on a two-year extension of the Afghan mission to 2009.
Kenny told MacKay that Canada's first ambassador to Afghanistan had told his committee that it would take five generations to rebuild the country, while a Canadian general testified that troops would be required there for 20 years.
MacKay bristled at that line of questioning, apparently because three-quarters of elected Liberal MPs voted against his party's motion recently.
"Well, if you're telling me on behalf of the opposition that you'd be willing to extend the date further, we could bring another motion," MacKay shot back.
But Kenny upbraided him, saying: "I don't speak for the opposition. This is a committee of the Senate of Canada."
(OTTAWA CITIZEN) © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006
That's OK. Canada is a smaller country: we have 10 times as many :-)
Mr Harper is doing a fine job, but he cant get rid of all the liberal goofballs
just don't tell anyone you're Canadian!
Ah...things were just so great under the Taliban.
Stollery was later heard to comment, "Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk! Woooo wooo wooo woo."
Just repeating what all the leftists the world over think of Karzai. They prefer the taliban, because they were anti-west, just as they are.
You guys are the best!
:-D
Canada ping!
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And we think Stollery is a fool.
This guy Stollery has a lot of balls calling Karzai a stooge given that he was 'appointed' to the Canadian Senate by Trudeau over 25 years ago and has not had to run for election since then. In contrast, Karzai actually stood for election in 2004 and garnered 55% of the Afghan vote.
Lack of balls. Alot of gall perhaps, but not balls.
President Karzai was elected by the Afghan people.
Maybe the US will get a real conservative government like Australia or Canada one of these days.
About as good a case for euthanasia as could be made. Maybe we could throw in 'Sheets' Byrd and Teddy the Swimmer and get a volume discount from the Dutch health authorities?
This is just another example of a liberal criticizing a person who has the courage to risk his life for his country.Sacrifice and bravery are two things that a liberal knows nothing about.They think that calling someone a stooge from the safety of their living room is an act of bravery and going to the local bathhouse only once a week is sacrifice.
Well said.
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