By Amanda Moddejonge, TBSN Green Party candidate
Thunder Bay – POLITICS – A suicide bomber has just hit the Kabul Airport. This will likely effectively stop flights coming or going from this country for some time.
It has been stated that there is no Military solution for Afghanistan. I am saying that the failed military withdrawal from this country is exactly what has led to the takeover of the country in less than 10 days, and it is exactly the cause of the explosion we have just seen.
If Canada continues to disengage from this country in a military capacity it is critical that we find a way to increase diplomatic ties. We need better foreign relations across the board, with all foreign countries. It is quite likely that we will need to work on diplomatic ties with the US after this. As we have now effectively left Afghanistan it will be incredibly difficult to provide on the ground support for the allied troops that will critically need it right now, and with that we have failed not only the Afghan people but our allies as well.
This incident happened at the Airport’s Barron Gate. Canada had been actively sending it’s Interpreters and citizens to this gate for the past several days, and allowing these people to stand and wait in sewage while not allowing them entrance.
Canadian Forces soldiers specifically withheld entrance to the airport from these people, even though they had all the appropriate paperwork and instructions from Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada to go there for transportation to Canada.
Afghan people have been increasingly displaced by the conflict in their country for years, but this has increased dramatically since the United States announced their withdrawal. Several Afghanis with established passage to the US have been brought to Qatar for processing. In a recent internal report it was stated that even these people who have been brought to a third country for processing are living in terrible conditions which are deteriorating very quickly. Many of the solutions that have been provided to these people, whose only crime was to take a job with a foreign country, are turning up to be fully disasterous.
It is critical in this time that Canadians demand an actual answer for the people of Afghanistan who supported our troops in missions to that country. The lack of government response has now led to obvious and apparent deaths that were 100% avoidable. It is easy for those of us looking in from the outside to ignore the individuals who have one by one been slaughtered by the Taliban, but far more difficult to turn a blind eye to this type event. None of these deaths deserve to be overlooked ever, and if this is what it takes for the Canadian government to act I hope they do so swiftly.
