This Is Not The Country You Have Been Looking For

You have to hand it to the propagandists in the PMO, with all their happy talk about our brilliant success in Afghanistan. They know how to spin bullshit. Just because "our success" is neither true, nor sustainable doesn't mean people won't buy the line. Canadians, in their hearts know the truth, but grab onto denial with both hands, because worshiping dead heroes is better than admitting failure. This report from the Globe, will I suspect, have any impact on the flag waving in Canada:

Whatever has been achieved over the past five years is sometimes called “fragile progress,” but that delicate phrase does not capture the sense of looming disaster many locals feel, a fear that the foreigners built a system that will soon collapse.

In dozens of interviews with locals – governor to farmer, police chief, hairdresser and Taliban – people expressed appreciation for all the construction projects, the schools and roads, but described the overall situation as terribly precarious.

They do not trust that the corrupt Afghan government, installed by foreigners, will be strong enough to stand by itself. Even senior government officials doubt their own comrades, and those misgivings are stronger at the lower ranks: A bodyguard for the governor mused about joining the Taliban; a policeman begged the Canadians to stay because he feared that his family would be killed.

And when it all turns to crap, which it will in due course, the PMO will either blame the opposition (Taliban Jack destroyed the morale of the Afghan people) or else claim that it is all the fault of the primitives in Afghanistan, who never appreciated the sacrifices of our dead heroes.

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And don’t believe the nonsense about the benefits of spending cuts that has taken over much of our public discourse: slashing spending at a time when the economy is deeply depressed would destroy hundreds of thousands and quite possibly millions of jobs.

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