So we're actually winning in Afghanistan. Yay! On the other hand, I thought we'd won after Operation Medusa in September, 2006.
A top NATO general says the alliance's massive, two-week-long anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan has been "successfully completed."
Lieut.-Gen. David Richards, head of the 20,000 NATO-led force, hailed Operation Medusa in the insurgent stronghold of southern Afghanistan as a "significant success.''
Reconstruction and development efforts will soon begin in three southern areas, said Richards, after coalition forces drove insurgents from their positions.
"The ability of the Taliban to stay and fight in groups is finished," said Asadullah Khalid, Kandahar province's governor. "The enemy has been crushed."
NATO launched Operation Medusa on Sept. 2 with the aim of clearing out Taliban fighters from a Panjwaii district near Kandahar. NATO said its troops killed 512 Taliban and captured another 136.
You know, I think CTV News has an attention deficit disorder. They said we'd tidied up Panjawaii four years ago. Also, I think the Department of National Defence has a special Pathetic Metaphor Training Programme for senior officers.
Here we have Dean Somebody saying with a straight face:
"It's almost a turning tide," Milner said following the meeting.In recent weeks, Canadian troops have conducted a half-dozen operations against the Taliban in Panjwaii.
The manoeuvres were timed to coincide with the U.S.-led Operation Dragon Strike, which got underway in the Arghandab and Zhari districts of Kandahar last week.
Meanwhile back in Ottawa, we have concrete evidence of political interference in Access to Information Act requests (hereafter referred to as ATIP) which is illegal, and part of a pattern: "abuse of process."
Here's a good description of "abuse of process" from the United States:
The court regards the instant case as a textbook case of discovery abuse. The court finds that Plaintiff has been prejudiced in two ways-the Trustee has been denied all the documents necessary to depose witnesses and prepare expert reports and the Trustee's preparation has been made disjointed and difficult and it has been forced to expend a fair amount of time and money and effort to get that which should have been more easily obtained. The court is most disturbed about Defendants' behavior with respect to the transfer interrogatories and e-mail discovery. In both of these areas, Defendants have blatantly ignored orders of the court and prompted multiple motions to compel. Defendants' only defense is their unpersuasive argument that they have now complied and Plaintiff has suffered no prejudice. Defendants' defense completely ignores the burdens the court and Plaintiff have endured to garner their compliance and the destructive precedent this court would set were it to allow Defendants to escape the consequences of three years of bad behavior simply because they believe they have now complied.
The judge is talking about Nigel Wright and Onex.
If it was only Christian Paradis, we might buy the "a few rotten apples" argument so beloved by war criminals the world over. The thing is, it's part of a pattern:
1. Jason Kenney, interfering with George Galloway's attempt to enter Canada. George might well be a grandiose jerk, but he's in good company in Ottawa.
2. Johns Sims' precipitous resignation as Deputy Attorney General, without any explanation.
3. Evidence for obstruction of justice by the Department of Justice: letter of Lori Bokenfohr, legal counsel for Richard Colvin, to Alain Prefontaine, Department of Justice, October 13, 2009.
4. Failure to renew the mandate of the Veterans' Affairs ombudsman.
5. Stupidity and lies about the Long Form Census, resulting in the principled resignation of the head of Statistics Canada
6. Even more stupidity and lies about the Long Form Census, from a guy who can't tell his girl friend from NATO
7. Breach of trust by Veterans' Affairs
8. Failure to re-appoint a Science Advisor
9. Failure to renew the mandate of the Commissioner of the Military Police Complaints Commission of Canada.
...to be continued
