"The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about." - Chomsky
The Canadian government is currently running an advertisement on television, gearing up for Remembrance Day tomorrow. In the ad, there is a series of photo montages which chronicle Canadian involvement in conflicts which span from the Great War up until our current day Afghan situation. I for one find the commercial distasteful in the extreme. By including images of our brave men and women of yesteryears with the soldiers today, it sends out a message which is in effect a lie. The men and women who gave their all in a conflict like World War Two were involved in a war which was REACTIONARY in nature. Germany was an aggressive nation which was actively seeking conflict with its immediate neighbours. Czechoslovakia had fallen, and Poland was hard pressed on two fronts (against the Germans and our allies, the Russians). Belgium and France were soon to follow, acts of aggression which led to the Allied intervention. As such, Canadian soldiers were acting to liberate nation states which had been attacked and conquered by an aggressor from outside their national boundaries.
This is not the case with Afghanistan. Afghanistan did not attack another nation, nor even hint at a desire to do so. It is us, the powers of the NATO occupying force, which are the aggressor states in this war. We attacked them, and forced this war, which is now seven years old, upon them. We are the violent aggressors, in effect making us akin to the Germans in 1939, and our soldiers are the instruments through which this aggression is enacted upon the people of Afghanistan. I do not like this comparison between what we were then and what we are now; it defiles and besmirches the memory of the brave men and women who died in the cause of peace, battling a reactionary war which was hoisted upon the world by an aggressive state – now we are the warrior state which has forced the war upon others. The images of the two, drastically different conflicts should not be married together in a single ad which celebrates our deeds of Remembrance. The actions of those who sacrificed for peace need to be celebrated, the actions of those who act pre-emptively, and who act in as the aggressors of war and death should not be.
The argument has been made that “They attacked us” on Sept. 11, 2001. Who are “They”? Certainly the supposed hijackers were all Muslim men, and Afghanistan is a Muslim nation - are we then at war against Islam, and not against any particular nation? Not a single man who was involved on that fateful day was from the nation of Afghanistan. The Saudi’s were well represented, and yet we did not seek our vengeance with them. We chose Afghanistan, and we attacked it, and we occupied it, and now we are entrenched in a bloody conflict against the people who fight us for the right to have control of their homeland, much like the Viet Cong fought for their homes against imperial interests for over 30 years. I do not care for the Taliban much, and there were things that they did within their nation which I was opposed to: the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, the repression of political dissidents, the subjugation of women, and the internal tribal conflicts (most notably against the Hazara), to name a few. The country of Afghanistan, however, did not need to pay in blood, and pay for over seven years (and more as the conflict shows no signs of slowing down) for these misdeeds. What right did we, as Canadians have to attack these people? Had Afghanistan done anything to our country? How does destroying a land of illiterate peasants, who have no access to stable electricity, running water, or basic medical treatments, let alone the military weapons and know how needed for a trans-Pacific assault, keep us safe? Because that is what the advertisement is saying – just as our soldiers fought and died for peace, and for our security in 1939, so now they fight in 2008.
Once we were a nation which prided itself as a land of Peace Keepers. Canada was always ready to respond to a reactionary conflict, if military action was deemed necessary by the United Nations. What happened to us? The UN did not sanction the assault on Afghanistan. It does not tend to sponsor wars of aggression for no real pretext, as the UN is in the business of sponsoring peace, or it is supposed to be. For the first time in a very long time we do not wear the blue berets in the desert.
“Support the troops” is a popular slogan. I do not. I support the Peace Keepers. I do not support the war makers. As such, tomorrow at the Remembrance Day ceremony, I will not hold the war makers in my heart. I will remember a better time, when the nation of Canada used to be more than what it has fallen to - when men died for peace, and not for war.
