One progressive mag slags another over Afghanistan article
But shouldn't you guys be on the same side? A writer for the weekly online magazine Seven Oaks, Dave Markland, is quite critical of the methodology and viewpoint expressed in the March/April issue of This Magazine by Jared Ferrie, entitled "Staying the course: why Canada can't pull its troops out of Afghanistan."
Markland says, for instance
Markland says, for instance
It is perhaps unfair to overly scrutinize Ferrie's views concerning the two main political parties, as his treatment of their positions and actions is rather glib. Most of his ire is reserved for those calling for Canadian troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan. In doing so, Ferrie makes credulous use of the pronouncements of Karzai government officials, mixed in with some poor use of evidence, unsupported argument, and numerous uses of innuendo in an attempt to discredit those with whom he disagrees. It is beyond the scope of this essay to pursue Ferrie's use of distortion and innuendo, though readers are encouraged to write to the editors of This Magazine to pursue the matter with them.You can read more of the Seven Oaks' critique here. Doubtless there'll be some return fire.
Labels: This Magazine
posted by D. B. Scott at
6:00 am
1 Comments:
for starters, i am a friend of jared's, so read with a grain of salt if you wish.
the point of the article is that people who call for the withdraw of canadian troops don't address the problem of what would happen if canadian (and nato) troops left afghanistan. do they wish for a return to the conflict of the civil war and the oppression of the taliban government of the late 90's when every socially conscious person with a computer forwarded email petitions about the plight of afghan women, calling for some sort of action?
there are certainly problems with our involvement in afghanistan, highlighted recently by the issue of the tracking of detainees. this doesn't mean, however, that no good has come of nato action or the development and rebuilding that has gone on in afghanistan.
the reviewer fails to address the issue directly, as did the anti-war activists quoted in jared's story. what would happen if we left? should we not do anything in darfur, as MAWO suggests? taking this one logical step further, was it right, then, to allow the genocide in rwanda to occur?
we need criticism of any and all canadian military action. however, one expects that with the criticism would come some constructive thought.
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