Afghan war could cost Canada $28 billion
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Given that Canada’s Afghan mission has more than doubled from first forecasts, Stephen Harper needs to explain how the Conservatives would pay for it.
So says the NDP’s Paul Dewar, Ottawa-Centre.
Today the Parliamentary Budget Office revealed the cost of the mission in Afghanistan has rocketed from initial estimates of $8 billion for a six-year mission to $18.1 billion.
“The real cost of the Afghan war will reach $20.7-billion before Canadian troops leave in 2011, according to an Ottawa-based foreign affairs organization, the Rideau Institute,” says the Globe and Mail, continuing:
“That tally includes not only the direct costs of deploying Canadian soldiers and equipment to Afghanistan, but the broader costs of health care, disability payments and the salaries of soldiers.
“The left-leaning group’s estimate was released on the eve of a formal reporting on the cost of the mission to be issued by Canada’s new parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page –– a report that could throw an unexpected twist into the election campaign.”
If the mission isnt working now, “why are we continuing with three more years of the same?”- asks Dewar. “If this isn’t the right mission after 2011, it’s not the right mission now.”
Jack Layton and the NDP want to bring our troops home from Afghanistan in six months, instead of spending $18.1 billion dollars on this war for three more years, says Dewar, adding:
“And I think Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion need to explain to Canadians why we’re continuing with a mission that isn’t working and that Canadians cannot afford.”
Globe and Mail – Cost of Afghan war will reach $20.7-billion, group says, October 9, 2008
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October 9th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
AND WHO pays for it? IS it Winable, is it working?
LIKE OMG get us some gas profits or oil profits ….noooo lets jerk canada again
1st softwood lumber now afghanistan.
HOW MANY HAVE TO DIE FOR OIL.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
oh and lets take 20 billion back and put that into health care that the conservatives want to privatize and maybe education lowering tuition?
MAYBE we could upgrade this crappy 5 megabit throttled piece a garbage internet.
next up they spend the 4billion wireless auction on ….YOU GUESSED it TANKS.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Anyone who thinks we’re in Afghanistan over oil is retarded.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:45 am
That is good a observation. Anyone who thinks we’re in Afghanistan over oil is retarded.
Afghanistan is poor country and nothing is there.
The reason why American and Canadian troops are in Afghanistan because Osama Bin Laden and other dirty little men with dirty little beards with their perverted sense of Islam murdered 3000 americans in New York City on 9 – 11- 2001.
The war in Afghanistan is a pointless effort to contain terrorism in that country so it won’t spread to the west.
I can tell none of you pathetic fools were never in the military.
Maybe it’s just as well.I could see you people getting captured by the Taliban and begging and screaming like some dizzy little cunt for your pathetic little lives and pissing your pance to keep some crazy arab with a dirty beard from beheading you with a big rambo knife.
Maybe for the sake of argument if war breaks out and Israel and the United States would go to war with Iran and Syria i am quite sure there are plenty of diaper heads in terrorist cells that got their heads filled up with crap by the dirty men with dirty beards in Madrassas the canadian goverment failed to do anything about in Canada that are just waiting for their marching orders for them to put on a bomb pack and blow themselves up in a crowded area full of people in a big metropolitan area in Canada.
The author of this article sounds like a socialist just like a american democrap who is a dope smoking leftist who wrings his hand and thinks he can treat terrorists with the milk of human kindness and sits around singing Kumbaya my lord and let’s give peace a chance.
MATTER OF FACT IF THEY EVER CAPTURED BIN LADEN I HOPE HE GETS BEHEADED AND HIS HEAD GETS PUT ON A STICK.
In America people like this are CLUELESS LIBERALS.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Canadians should feel lucky they are getting off so cheap. Those of us unfortunate to be living south of the border will have to cough up trillions – yes, TRILLIONS – of dollars to support a war machine gone crazy.
At least Canadians had the sanity not to be suckered into the fraud of the Iraq “weapons of mass destruction”
October 10th, 2008 at 9:54 am
“Afghanistan is poor country and nothing is there.”
Wrong. This country is the biggest producer and exporter of heroin.
It is also strategically located near oil producing countries.
“The reason why American and Canadian troops are in Afghanistan because Osama Bin Laden and other dirty little men with dirty little beards with their perverted sense of Islam murdered 3000 Americans in New York City on 9 – 11- 2001.”
While it is true that 3,000 Americans were murdered by terrorists, who the terrorists were is not a sure thing. Osama Bin Laden has not been captured (on purpose?) and until he is captured or others speak out, the whole truth will not be known.
It is also true that many thousands of Iraqis have been needlessly killed and all Iraqis have humiliated by an unjustified invasion and country take-over, no Canadians soldiers have gone to to the USA. Then why the double standard?
And talking of double standards why is the war criminal McCain (flew 28 bomb dropping missions to kill innocent people) a hero in the USA? If in doubt check out the DVD Fog of War, where John McNamara (Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies) classified Americans as war criminals for what was done in Vietnam and explains that he himself and American presidents did not know why Americans were in Vietnam.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Afghanistan has a history of tribalism and war, which it is difficult to see ending, which is the frustration for our troops (who I totally support). But we don’t have a choice IMO. 911 happened, and it happened from Afghanistan. If we don’t make a stand in Afghanistan, to try and provide a “normal/peaceful” life for the majority of the youth there, then all we can expect is for the extremists to win and another attack to inevitably happen, maybe in Canada next time.
Have you considered what would happen in Afghanistan if we start pulling out? Hopelessness, fear, instability, and extremism have a nasty habit of spreading if its not dealt with. If we ignore it now, we can rest assured its only a matter of time before its at our door step. And we’ll have to pay an even higher price. Theres also the matter of what Afghans will go through with the return to the Taliban, as they’ve already demonstrated they don’t care how many innocent people die to get back into power.
Why wouldn’t we stand up to them alongside the USA and our other NATO friends? We easily forget that Canada had a very real role in the Cold War and we did our part to protect Europe from the soviet horde (not to mention WWI, WWII, Korea, the 1st Gulf War, Kosovo).
Our objective is not a cosmopolitan Kabul. That’ll never happen. But we want a stable, autonomous Afghanistan – one that is not a safe haven for extremism. And believe it or not, we are closer to that than we were 3 years ago. When Canadians arrived in Kandahar in 2005 it was a city under siege. Surrounded literally by thousands of Taliban who were ready to retake the city and not afraid to stand toe-to-toe with NATO. There was a very real belief the city could fall. Today the Taliban are a shadow of their former selves. They are still a very real danger, but now rely nearly exclusively on roadside bombs. They are unable to hold any ground.
Every month the Afghan National Army (ANA) grows larger. They are the real future for Afghanistan. They are devoted, professional, and effective. Over the last few months the ANA have begun planning and excuting their on operations with ISAF playing a limited supporting role. They are not self sufficient yet, but they get closer everyday. They are very highly respected both by ISAF and their own people
I’m not trying to paint a wonderful, rosy picture in Afghanistan. There are very serious obstacles. Corruption, the drug trade, Pakistan. But there is also very real progress. It took 30 years to destroy Afghanistan. Why would we think we could fix in 7?
Let’s not forget that this group of people were directly and indirectly responsible for the biggest attack ever on continental North American soil. This is a little too close to home for me. Be damned if I want to fear going out shopping for groceries in case of an attack. Our armed forces are doing a fantastic job and it would be a shame if we gave up. We sure could use a hand though, but hey it’s probably too dangerous for some of those other countries to go to where we are. Besides, it’s not about “winning”. We don’t want to occupy their space. It’s about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that’s not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army so we can leave them be to their own civil wars.
Also not in the news much is the fact that the Taliban are negotiating in Saudi Arabia with the Afghans. A real peace may well be within reach there if the Saudi’s continue pushing towards a negotiated settlement.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
“Have you considered what would happen in Afghanistan if we start pulling out? Hopelessness, fear, instability, and extremism have a nasty habit of spreading if its not dealt with.”
The identical thing was said would happen if Americans pulled out of Vietnam. It was just a justification to sell more military armament.
Watch out for the CIA trolls.
October 14th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Only a retard could make comparisons to the war in Afghanistan to the war in vietnam……………….
October 15th, 2008 at 8:38 am
“Only a retard could make comparisons to the war in Afghanistan to the war in vietnam……………….”
The “retard says”
No comparison about the origins of both occupations was made or intended.
The invasion was right based on the clearly established fact that the Afghan Taliban government was openly harboring terrorists.
But once the Talibans were overthrown the Afghan people should have been left alone to set up their government and run their country by themselves as a sovereign nation. That pullout should have happened a long time ago.
Bush is acting dumb as did the American in Vietnam where, unlike Afghanistan, Americans should have never been.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Peace brothers