Norm Harley writes, “If water boarding and sleep deprivation of 1,000 detainees at the hands of the Afghans saved the life of just one Canadian soldier, I would be in full support of doing the same to all detainees.” Torture does not change the minds of Afghan prisoners.
Recently, we learned ( “Freed Guantanamo prisoner new Taliban No. 2 leader,” The Journal, March 25) a Taliban commander released from Guantanamo Bay was promoted to No. 2 in the insurgency. The Pentagon revealed that as many as 60 former inmates returned to join the Taliban or al-Qaida after release.
Recent black widow bombings show violence creates violence.
I don’t want to convey that the main reason we should not use violence because of the futility of using violence. We are less human when we tolerate violence. Why should we tolerate violence against any person, any animal, any environment?
Are Afghans not human, not deserving of our respect? Canadians went into Afghanistan after the U.S. had bombed the daylights out of that country. We will never know how many people — men, women and children, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons — were killed and wounded. How many lost their home, their business, their job? How many had to flee? How many families were separated?
No one knows the number of “ordinary” Afghans killed by drone plane attacks.
How devastated we would be if all that happened to us. If you can’t bring yourself to feel Afghans are “real” people, pick up the memoirs of writers who penned what happened to them and their families.
Nine million Afghans, or 36 per cent, are living in absolute poverty while 37 per cent live barely above the poverty line. The country is locked in a vicious cycle as the poor are driven to take up arms to support themselves.
War does not solve problems; it creates them. The Canadian government must get out of the war and weapons business and must never tolerate torture. We would be much further ahead in creating a safer and fairer world if we invested in peace, rather than war.
Cecily Mills, Edmonton
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