Speaker Milliken took the mushy middle route yesterday in his ruling concerning the release of documents on the Afghan detainees. He basically threw it back at the government and parliament to sort things out and gave them a deadline of two weeks.
I think his ruling was wrong. We are not living in normal times. We are at war. Our national security is at risk and the safety of our troops should trump any release of documents.
Can we really trust opposition MPs to keep secret whatever they may see in those documents? I think not. This is a highly partisan parliament right now and I think what you are seeing with all the antics that the opposition parties have been engaged in the last 4 years with all the faux scandals is to try and make the government look bad and score some political points. I believe they would "leak" any information to the media in a heart beat even sensitive information would put our brave men and women in uniform in greater harm than they already are.
The Bloc? Give them access to secret documents? Wouldn't that set a dangerous precedent?
The media in my opinion because of their bias against the Conservatives would do anything and everything to torque headlines (because that's what most pay attention to) and spin to make the government look bad no matter what.
Furthermore, do Canadians really care about the treatment of Afghan detainees? I think they care more about jobs, the mounting deficit and debt, health care, pensions, etc. You know the everyday bread and butter issues rather than detainees that burn down schools, throw acid in the faces of schoolgirls, and plant road side bombs that kill our brave Canadian soldiers.
This has been a political ploy that at the end of the day really benefits no one. Rather sad if you ask me.
Our national security is at risk and the safety of our troops should trump any release of documents.
ReplyDeleteRespectfully, can you provide any example of national security risks or threats to the well-being of our troops?
A while back Pamela Wallin went to Afghanistan to a remote area close to the Pakistani border where she encounter an Afghan family, there she had a chat with the lady of the household The Afghan lady a mother herself and who has lost members of her family to the taliban told Pamela with tears streaming down her cheeks:
ReplyDelete"tell the mothers who lost their sons and daughters that I understand their pain losing a loved one but tell them please do not call back your soldiers wait until our afghan soldiers and police are fully equipt and are able to stand on their own to handle our problems against the taliban then your soldiers can go home."
frmgrl,
I have noticed as well that soldiers keep returning to afghanistan because what they see must hurt them to know that with all the freedom we have here we have no idea what freedom truly means.
When Pamela related her story was at a time when many of our soldiers were been killed.
Anony,for example, there could be names of soldiers and/or names of Afghans that have given us info, military strategy etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat about our NATO allies too? There could be something in there that could be detrimental to them.
As the Conservatives have been fond of saying lately in the House, "If you have any specific allegations, they should be forwarded to the proper authorities." Otherwise you are just fear mongering about duly elected representatives. Even in times of war, the government can change hands. Likely or not, every single Member of Parliament could potentially be the next Prime Minister and have access to all our nation's secrets. Do you think that all national security documents should be burned instead of being handed over to a new government? It does not matter if YOU don't trust members of the opposition. They have all sworn to uphold the duties of their office and have the right to be trusted, until it can be demonstrated otherwise.
ReplyDeleteDead straight good post.
ReplyDeleteIf those people who view these documents were sworn to secrecy and they did find something.....who could they tell...they took an oath...they can't go to the media and shout it from the rooftops and they couldn't discuss it during question period...so what is the point. I think that the opposition needed something to thump their chests about...so the public is still in the dark and most of the public do not care to begin with....what a waste of time and money. If important information is leaked...the one that opened their mouth should be thrown in jail for conspiracy
ReplyDeleteWe are not, technically, at war. In fact, we and the Afghan government are quite good friends.
ReplyDeleteNow, the Speaker hasn't ordered the Government to hand over the documents publicly. He has ruled that Parliament has the right to see those documents in a way that does not threaten national security. That's all.
It isn;t that hard to come up with at least ten different solutions to the conundrum. What we need to do is show Canada that it's the Opposition who don;t want a solution.
Do we care about the treatment we afford our prisoners? We should. Furthermore it would help clarify what the heck we're doing in Afghanistan anyway: are we there as guests and under the ultimate authority of the Afghan gov't, or are we an occupation force (which then should keep its own POWs?)