Media Release
Karzai “May Join the Taliban”
One more Reason to Bring the Troops Home Now
Toronto, April 6, 2010 - The Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA), Canada's largest peace network, renewed calls for Canadian Forces to be brought home from Afghanistan after Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to join the Taliban in a meeting with Afghan parliamentarians. Karzai also criticized the heavy handed approach of NATO, including their repeated killing of civilians, and even implied that he would attempt to stop NATO's planned June offensive in Kandahar from happening.
This is just one more reason to bring the troops home”, said Derrick O'Keefe, Co-chair of the CPA. “The fact that Karzai, the US installed and NATO backed president, has to denounce the occupiers to gain legitimacy says everything about how this war is going. That 141 Canadian soldiers have died keeping this guy in power should be pause for reflection for people across Canada."
The CPA has long criticized the Afghan government, which NATO is keeping in power, for being dominated by drug lords and human rights abusers. Afghans see the Afghan Government as corrupt and violent. As long as NATO is bombing civilians to keep that government in power, the insurgency will grow and life will get worse for the Afghan people.
"Instead of talking about staying on after 2011, we should be talking about getting Canadian troops out of Afghanistan even sooner," added O'Keefe.
Diplomat Robert Fowler recently made waves at the Liberals' conference in Montreal by advocating an immediate Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan:
"The bottom line is that we will not prevail in Afghanistan. Once we understand and accept that reality it is time to leave, not a moment, not a life and not a dollar later."
The CPA will call for an end to the war at demonstrations during the meeting of the G20 this June in Toronto.
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For more information contact: Derrick O'Keefe, Co-Chair of the CPA at 604-803-6927
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Canadian Peace Alliance
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phone: 416-588-5555
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