Canada the next venezuela.

[bush_cheney2004]

Just now, Zeitgeist said:

You just discount all the work rebuilding and protecting girls who want to attend school, the training of police, the actual nitty gritty of running a society in one of the harshest Afghan regions.  Nothing boutique about it.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s more disinformation.  You don’t know how Canada has been tasked or why.  It’s leadership was respected.  And we were there for our American allies. 

 

Is Canada there now, in equal numbers and spending ?   Was Canada there before 9/11, when U.S. NGOs were the largest contributors in Afghanistan ?

 

[Zeitgeist]

22 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

Were....past tense...left in 2011.   Canada is one of the worst NATO deadbeats for defense spending as a percentage of GDP, far below the 2.0% agreed level.

And that would be fine until Trudeau and Freeland had the unmitigated gall to insist that Trump and the Americans continue to do far more, while Canada purposely can/does less.

Canada didn’t insist on anything except fair trade treatment.  We certainly didn’t get it on steel and aluminum.  So when Canadians fight to stand up for an attacked ally they get called a security threat.  Fucking terrible.  2018 was very instructive for Canadians.  Trump is your least liked president internationally, yet he won the election.  He had a mandate. 

[Dougie93]

What actually happened is that the bulk of Canada's humanitarian effort never got off the ground, because as soon as it arrived in Kandahar, the Taliban attacked it, and then all the DFAIT CIDA civilians fled back to Canada, and the military was left holding the bag.

Fool's errand of course, but the army can't decline a fool's errand like the civilians can.

[Zeitgeist]

3 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

Is Canada there now, in equal numbers and spending ?   Was Canada there before 9/11, when U.S. NGOs were the largest contributors in Afghanistan ?

 

You mean when the US was propping up the Mujahideen that became the Taliban?   

[Dougie93]

The Taliban aren't the Muj, the Taliban is a group which rose up in the 90s because they were outraged about boys being raped by drug dealers.

[bush_cheney2004]

Just now, Zeitgeist said:

Canada didn’t insist on anything except fair trade treatment.  We certainly didn’t get it on steel and aluminum.  So when Canadians fight to stand up for an attacked ally they get called a security threat.  Fucking terrible.  2018 was very instructive for Canadians.  Trump is your least liked president internationally, yet he won the election.  He had a mandate. 

 

Trump sure does, and U.S. domestic capacity for steel and aluminum production is more important than Canada's lopsided economic dependencies.   That's what "national security" means in this context, regardless of what Trudeau and Freeland think about it.

Canada was called out for dumping, transshipments from China, IP theft, and tariffs....too bad.

[Zeitgeist]

2 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

What actually happened is that the bulk of Canada's humanitarian effort never got off the ground, because as soon as it arrived in Kandahar, the Taliban attacked it, and then all the DFAIT CIDA civilians fled back to Canada, and the military was left holding the bag.

Fool's errand of course, but the army can't decline a fool's errand like the civilians can.

Well I have good friends who did heavy lifting in Kandahar.  The work was significant and complex.  Again, we were there for an ally.  

[Zeitgeist]

1 minute ago, Dougie93 said:

The Taliban aren't the Muj, the Taliban is a group which rose up in the 90s because they were outraged about boys being raped by drug dealers.

Who do you think the opium warlords are? Who funded it all?

[bush_cheney2004]

2 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

You mean when the US was propping up the Mujahideen that became the Taliban?   

 

So the answer is no, Canada was not in A-stan like U.S. NGOs before 9/11. 

[bush_cheney2004]

1 minute ago, Zeitgeist said:

Well I have good friends who did heavy lifting in Kandahar.  The work was significant and complex.  Again, we were there for an ally.  

 

So they weren't there for the Afghans ?

[Dougie93]

Whatever, like I told you, the Washington Treaty didn't actually bind Canada to do anything specific.   It was more Paul Martin wanting to contrast himself with lefty Chretien what made the government charge from Kabul to Kandahar in 2006

[Dougie93]

3 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

Who do you think the opium warlords are? Who funded it all?

The Northern Alliance who the Taliban deposed for raping boys from the madrassas.

Which the Americans and NATO reinstalled in Kabul in 2002, inciting a never ending insurgency by the Taliban against their opium warlord  sworn enemies now propped up by America.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Dougie93

[Zeitgeist]

1 minute ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

Trump sure does, and U.S. domestic capacity for steel and aluminum production is more important than Canada's lopsided economic dependencies.   That's what "national security" means in this context, regardless of what Trudeau and Freeland think about it.

Canada was called out for dumping, transshipments from China, IP theft, and tariffs....too bad.

No it’s stupid because we’re paying equal tariffs and we were buying more of your steel and aluminum than the reverse.  You lost more!

[Zeitgeist]

4 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

The Northern Alliance who the Taliban deposed for raping boys from the madrassas.

Which the Americans and NATO reinstalled in Kabul in 2002, inciting a never ending insurgency by the Taliban against the opium warlord enemies now propped up by America.

The Northern Alliance didn’t exist until the invasion.  The Mujahideen were supported against the Soviets, which backfired big time.  

 

Edited January 19, 2019 by Zeitgeist

[bush_cheney2004]

7 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

No it’s stupid because we’re paying equal tariffs and we were buying more of your steel and aluminum than the reverse.  You lost more!

 

Don't care....Trump wants to put an end to the games that Canada and others were playing, no matter how butt-hurt Trudeau and Freeland may be.

Don't like it ?  Find another market for 75% of Canada's export trade.  

Oh, and shut down the GM Oshawa plant too, just for fun.

Edited January 19, 2019 by bush_cheney2004

[Zeitgeist]

2 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

 

Don't care....Trump wants to put an end to the games that Canada and others were playing, no matter how butt-hurt Trudeau and Freeland may be.

Don't like it ?  Find another market for 75% of Canada's export trade.  

Oh, and shut down the GM Oshawa plant to, just for fun.

It’s twisted policy.  You cut off your nose to spite your face because Canada has tariffs on China steel and aluminum.  Dumb as hell policy.  More of the same on the border wall, shut down, and increased military spending.  This guy is spending like a drunken sailor and turning the country against itself.  

[bush_cheney2004]

Just now, Zeitgeist said:

It’s twisted policy.  You cut off your nose to spite your face because Canada has tariffs on China steel and aluminum.  Dumb as hell policy.  More of the same on the border wall, shut down, and increased military spending.  This guy is spending like a drunken sailor and turning the country against itself.  

 

Canada moved on stopping the transshipments in the hope of avoiding Trump's tariffs...but no deal.

Canada was busted and Trudeau knew it.   

Don't like it ?   Go elsewhere....

[Dougie93]

9 minutes ago, Zeitgeist said:

The Northern Alliance didn’t exist until the invasion.  The Mujahideen were supported against the Soviets, which backfired big time.  

 

The Northern Alliance existed.  Here's the sequence of events; upon withdraw of the Soviets, the Muj who expelled them broke down into factions and had a civil war, in the process they became opium warlords.  The result was lawless chaos.  In the gangster state, the drug dealers would rape teenage boys from the religious schools called madrassas.

This was intolerable for the devoutly religious Pashtuns, who banded together to form their own army of holy warriors to overthrow the opium warlords.  Which they did. That force is called the Taliban; "the Students" as in the madrassas.

The last holdouts of the Muj opium warlords was the Northern Alliance, because they were driven right into the Panjshir valley as their last refuge from the Taliban, in the north.

When the Americans overthrew the Taliban, they reinstalled the Northern Alliance, who were the gangsters, and so the Taliban holy warriors have been fighting to throw the gangsters back out ever since.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Dougie93

[Dougie93]

Up until 9-11, America was on the Taliban's side, as part of the war on drugs, because nobody on earth was harder on drug dealers than the Taliban.

[Zeitgeist]

3 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

The Northern Alliance existed.  Here's the sequence of events; upon withdraw of the Soviets, the Muj who expelled them broke down into factions and had a civil war, in the process they became opium warlords.  The result was lawless chaos.  In the gangster state, the drug dealers would rape teenage boys from the religious schools called madrassas.

This was intolerable for the devoutly religious Pashtuns, who banded together to form their own army of holy warriors to overthrow the opium warlords.  Which they did. That force is called the Taliban; "the Students" as in the madrassas.

The last holdouts of the Muj opium warlords was the Northern Alliance, because they were driven right into the Panjshir valley as their last refuge from the Taliban, in the north.

When the Americans overthrew the Taliban, they reinstalled the Northern Alliance, who were the gangsters, and so the Taliban holy warriors have been fighting to throw the gangsters back out ever since.

I agree and appreciate that you know this, but the Taliban were also corrupt and accessed drug money unofficially. 

[Dougie93]

1 minute ago, Zeitgeist said:

I agree and appreciate that you know this, but the Taliban were also corrupt and accessed drug money unofficially. 

Well, the Taliban had to fund an insurgency against the Americans, so they allow for themselves to sell drugs to fight the war, once they win the war, then they will go back to running a brutal Sharia Law regime which prohibits even kite flying and dancing never mind opium.

[Dougie93]

I mean, the Taliban are indeed monstrous by any Western standard, but that's because where the Taliban are from; it's still the 14th century for all intents and purposes.

[QuebecOverCanada]

7 hours ago, turningrite said:

Trudeau and his "progressive" acolytes promote another form of top-down, anti-democratic totalitarianism. They're not democrats at heart but instead believe the world can and should be shaped by institutions, including government, to fit their own ideological agenda. Trudeau thinks that those who don't believe in this agenda are "fringe" and must not be afforded a voice. The problem for him, of course, will be that eventually a critical mass of voters could just say NO! to all the "progressive" nonsense. Perhaps Trudeau thinks there's no possibility that a protest movement like the "yellow vests" could emerge in Canada? If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't be so confident about this.

No way a Yellow Vest protest could happen in Canada or even Québec.

The youth of my generation had what, the 2012 Spring where they smashed windows because marxism and student fees, but otherwise nothing happens here. The French do not surrender as a population to their government. They are tougher than us Canadians, thus their standards of living being much better than ours (better and cheaper food, good apartments, very historic and beautiful cities, good salaries).

[Zeitgeist]

23 minutes ago, QuebecOverCanada said:

No way a Yellow Vest protest could happen in Canada or even Québec.

The youth of my generation had what, the 2012 Spring where they smashed windows because marxism and student fees, but otherwise nothing happens here. The French do not surrender as a population to their government. They are tougher than us Canadians, thus their standards of living being much better than ours (better and cheaper food, good apartments, very historic and beautiful cities, good salaries).

Um, there’s quite a bit of immigration from France right now.  That country, a great one, is up against some real challenges like much of Europe right now.  I recently did a home swap in Quebec and was very impressed at how good Quebecers are doing these days.  I’ve had a number of requests from France as well.  I live in Ontario and last summer we went to France.  We really enjoyed it, but one memory really stands out.  We saw children begging in the street and families trying to sneak into the Metro because they didn’t have subway fare.  They were all obviously immigrants and it was both surprising and sad. 

[Dougie93]

Most of the immigrants in France are pressed up against the English Channel, hoping to cross to England, because France is not actually welcoming to immigrants, France is actually an ethno-nationalist state, hence why all the ghettos around Paris contained only by paramilitary French forces.