Robert Fowler gets it wrong

Terry Glavin, NP:

I regret to say Robert Fowler is a bigger goofball than I thought. By an order of magnitude.

Canadian foreign policy should not be the exclusive purview of diplomats and policy wonks, Mr. Fowler. It should reflect precisely the interests and activism of Canadians. There’s nothing “parochial” about that, and there is no virtue in peacekeeping just because it’s something the autocrats in Beijing and Moscow and Tehran would prefer Canadian soldiers do.

Fowler appears to lament that Canadians are not prepared to invest the blood and treasure (TM) required to “effectively colonize Afghanistan. . .and replace their culture with ours, for that seems to be what we seek, and the Taliban seems to share that view.” What the hell is he saying, exactly? The right to know how to read is something peculiar to “our” culture? If we help Afghan teachers with their work, we’re replacing Afghan culture with “our” culture? Or does he want us to “colonize” Afghanistan? If that’s what he wants, then he’s quite right, we’d be doomed. But colonization “seems to be” what we’re doing because that’s what the Taliban claims? We let the Taliban do our thinking for us? What about the vast majority of Afghans who want nothing to do with the Taliban? They don’t see Canada as some kind of colonizer. Don’t their views count?

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