Canada won't keep troops longer in Afghanistan

[CHIMO]

WASHINGTON ? Canada has turned down a request from the U.S. State Department to delay withdrawing its 2,000 troops from Afghanistan this summer.
Americans, worried about potential violence during Afghan elections this fall, wanted Canadians to act as a rapid reaction force and stay put past their scheduled departure this summer.
"What the Americans are looking for is not exactly what our troops are trained to do," he said Friday.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1087555511297&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037

[dolo amber]

1. "What the Americans are looking for is not exactly what our troops

are trained to do,"....

i.e "FUCK YOU, Georgie, we're out."

Go Canada! :yourock:

[CHIMO]

2. Help

We are on the verge of being taken over by a fifth column.
Known as Conservative/Alliance/Reform.

[Hoping4Change]

4. Yes a nightmare scenerio is brewing.

Can you believe the way the election is heading?

[Spazito]

5. The faux Conservatives won't win, they have peaked and the...

support they have is soft, they only have about 20% hardcore supporters. It will be a Liberal minority, imo.

[Hoping4Change]

7. I wish I could be so confident.

[Minstrel Boy]

6. No, it'll be okay. Look at these numbers:

These are the numbers from the SES-CPAC tracking poll over the past eight days:

Date-------CON / LIB / NDP / BQ / GRN

18/06/2004 29 / 34 / 22 / 10 / 05
17/06/2004 32 / 32 / 21 / 12 / 04
16/06/2004 34 / 32 / 19 / 12 / 03
15/06/2004 33 / 32 / 19 / 12 / 04
14/06/2004 34 / 33 / 18 / 11 / 05
11/06/2004 34 / 33 / 18 / 11 / 05
10/06/2004 37 / 32 / 17 / 10 / 05
09/06/2004 37 / 33 / 15 / 10 / 05

Just look at this:

The Conservatives are DOWN 8%
The Liberals are UP 1%
The NDP is UP 7%

Don't believe the right wing corporate media (and boy, do we ever have one) which wants to convince you a Conservative majority is in the cards. The Conservatives have peaked, and are trending down.

Have you seen the story tonight, about their press releases, withdrawn and mistakenly reissued, that say the Liberals and NDP are pro child porn? That's a desperate, hamfisted ploy that will not win them support.

[Hoping4Change]

8. Minstrel Boy are you psychic or something?

I was just wondering (as I wrote my previous remark) what the polls were showing.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. Not a psychic, just

a pathetic poll junkie. :evilgrin:

[CHIMO]

11. Like Your Reply

But watch out for them dogs.
By the way the error in the polls, do they take into consideration that they may be sampling different populations?
Or are we just looking at one population. Just a simple question.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. They are different sample groups each day,

but they're always regionally representative.

[CHIMO]

9. Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

One first has to realize what is happening. It is all nice to get high on ones beliefs but one has to be aware of the environment that they are in.
Have a look at an article from today on how the right have taken over the US system.


Banana Republicans and Weapons of Mass Deception

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/18/1412255

[Minstrel Boy]

12. SES-CPAC has the NDP just 7 points behind the Conservatives today.

The Conservatives have fallen 8 points in 8 days. Despite the propaganda from CanWest and CTV, this is the environment we're in.

I know very well what Harper's Frankenstein party represents, but I don't fear it. Because it is not going to form a majority government.

[Hoping4Change]

14. Harper's Frankenstein party . lol lol

Too funny.

[CHIMO]

16. If You Looked

At the reference that I gave, it would show you how the right has taken over the Republican party. Not how your party is not the same.
How can you be so confident that your party does not have a fifth column.
If Bill B. or Ed B. was in charge I would have more confidence.

[Spazito]

19. I don't get where you are going, to be honest...

are you saying the NDP is a fifth column? That they are deliberately splitting the vote for the faux Conservatives? If so, that is soooo wrong, imo, and I am a Liberal supporter, just for clarity.

[CHIMO]

23. Didn't Mean

To offend or draw blood. But if you watch the program (The article or book is done by PR Watch). They, the right, have been consistent for 30 years or more in getting their views across.
In fact I remember a group in the seventies that was headed by Rockerfeller that was leading a group.
When one thinks that they have found the holly grail, I go back to when I had to walk around every mail box because it was potentially dangerous.
Layton attacked the left today when the enemy is lead by Klein.
As for the fifth column I believe that they are present in every party, although to a much lesser degree in CAP. I have read where the CIA were present in Pearson's group but apparently they were aware of it. Sorry I can't back this up.
Not saying that NDP are fifth column. We need more people like Bill B. and Matt R. influencing the direction of governments.

[Spazito]

25. Where your fifth column is relevant, imo, was the takeover of ...

the Progressive Conservative Party by the zealots of the Alliance party. That is where there is a dangerous attempt to inflict the rightwing fundie view into Canada. The BIG difference is that the religious fundies are but a small minority in Canada, thank goodness.

[Minstrel Boy]

26. Yes. I refuse to call this new abomination "Tories."

Reform has reanimated the corpse of the Progressive Conservative Party, and is trying to persuade Canadians of a continuity with our traditional moderate right.

[Minstrel Boy]

22. Well, now you've just confused the hell out of me.

Yes, I looked at your link, and I know the book, and I have been well aware for nearly a quarter century of how the far right was assimilating the Republican Party.

But now I see, what you really want to tell me is that the far right may be attempting to take over the NDP.

This sounds like the "Nader is a Repug" line. Is that it? Is this what you once-proud Liberals have been reduced to arguing, because New Democrats haven't signed on to "Team Martin"? That's as foolish as it is arrogant.

You think Jack Layton is some kind of stealth neocon? You don't live in Toronto, do you?

Nader's one guy, and he stands at what - 4%? The CCF/NDP has been around for 70 years, governs provincially and is supported federally today by more than one-fifth of voters.

Really, don't be silly.

[CHIMO]

28. Keep Your Shorts

On. Anytime someone is so confident of their position it points out to me that they are leaving themselves open.
As I pointed out here at the beginning of the campaign that Martin was not able to excuse himself from the shortfalls on health care. They came up with a nice formula for transferring things to the provinces. It has been done and finished.
I have also stated here that the issue would be health care. So far it seems to have been picked up by the parties.
Today Layton attacked Martin on health care, after Martin and his party have defined and clarified their position.
What can one draw from this? Layton sees his enemy as the Liberals.
Well what he is doing is bringing in Shelia. C. back into the picture. And I for one welcome her return.
The right, corporatism, wants to take over.

[Minstrel Boy]

29. Eat my shorts.

Of course Layton attacks Martin. Of course the NDP is battling the Liberals. What do you expect from an opposition party in an election? But you forget to mention the NDP's noted strategic shift last week to focus attacks upon Harper and the Conservatives as well. It was considered a risky and unusual step. Surely you heard of it?

You said elsewhere that Layton was "attacking the left." I take it you mean Paul Martin? I expect even most Liberals would gag on that one.

[Spazito]

30. LOL, speaking for this Liberal, I am not gagging but am agreeing...

with you, the Liberal Party is the centrist party not the Left.

[Minstrel Boy]

32. Spazito, you're my kind of Liberal!

The Liberal Party is centrist. And as centres go, the Canadian centre hasn't been such a bad place to be. But it's simply disingenuous to claim, particularly during an election, to be a party of the Left.

[MrPrax]

38. Centrist?

Under Martin they moved to the Right...Big Time.

The New Dem strategy might payoff big in the final stretch...Martin is trying desparately to get Con 'swing' votes.

On fundamentals their platforms are the same and quite frankly I find 'l'iberals that support the Liberal party to be kinda hypocritical...they should tear a page out of the Quebec liberals notebook. Ignore them and hope that Martin will go away...

[Spazito]

39. When you rate the parties based on their platforms...

the faux Conservatives are the right
the Liberals are the center
the NDP are the right
the PQ are strictly provincial protectionists
the Green are fringe

A centrist party pulls slightly left or right depending on the circumstances and the pending legislation, that's what centrist parties do.

[CHIMO]

33. Keep You Shorts

On.
Please don't eat them.
If you haven't noticed, Klein has entered the election. When he entered I questioned why he was getting involved.
Well it looks like he wants to get it "over with".(The way he describes the inconvenience of going back to his electorate)
It appears that he is afraid of all the negative things that will be on his doorstep next spring. It will be much easier for him to argue with Martin than with Harper. Layton is fighting the wrong shadow.
It is not the first time that they have deviated from the principles that I have understood they stood for.
When the government of Canada brought an action against the US packers they blocked the Canadian action. They have lost moral grounds. They are trying to gain power in my opinion. Maybe you don't know, but we have US companies that will not not turn over their books to our government because they are US companies.
There is no one left to represent the beef producers in Canada. They blew their wad.
Agree that in the past they fought against the right. But I have to say that they won those fights from my point of view. I would severally miss this part from the political scene in Canada.

[Minstrel Boy]

34. Well, this is certainly interesting:

"Maybe you don't know, but we have US companies that will not not turn over their books to our government because they are US companies."

Maybe you don't know, but it was a Liberal government which ratified NAFTA, and has held power for the past 11 years.

[CHIMO]

36. Some Options

http://www.davidorchard.com/online/2do-index.html

http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/Main.asp?SetLanguage=English

If you are aware there has not been any mention of this in the election campaign.
We have companies snubbing their nose at Canada.

[CHIMO]

40. NAFTA Has

Nothing to do with this.
The companies were in contempt of parliament.

[CHIMO]

42. Have To Take Back My Reply #40

It was my understanding that it was an all parliamentary committee that blocked the penalties to the packers.
I went back for a reference and didn't find the NDP as one of the groups that blocked the fine.
Mea coulpa.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/05/06/449575-cp.html

Hope that Layton can bring up the topic in Regina.

[Spazito]

31. During the election cycle, everyone attacks everyone else...

that's POLITICS! Layton is attacking Martin AND Harper as they are his party's chief opponents, nothing new or odd or nefarious in that.

[goforit]

15. Time to put your seatbelt on.It'll be one hell of a ride for the next 4.

[metis]

17. CRAParty

AKA Conservative/Reform/Alliance party.......

[Hoping4Change]

20. HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

What a laugh. I love it. BTW Metis welcome to DU. :hi:

[Spazito]

21. PERFECT! I will take that acronym far and wide, if I may!

Thanks for posting it!

[piece sine]

35. Canada's not a real country...

It's this strange northern suburb of the United States who'se residents are in complete denial about the casual suburban linkage that bonds it forever to the fifty more virbrant states below.

[CHIMO]

37. Maybe

What say you to a division along the Mississippi. Seems more logical to me, if there is anything to logic?

[Hoping4Change]

43. Exactly who much time have you spent in Canada to arrive

at this conclusion?

[Spazito]

3. Wow, good for us!

We have done our part, bush said the war in Afghanistan was won, right, so he doesn't need our troops. He can't treat other countries like shit and then expect them to do his bidding.

[goforit]

18. Yes!......Please stop supporting Bush's terror.

You all were terrific,
but this is Satan we're dealing with and for all Canadians, y'all are just too good and funny to fall for this sucker.
good and funny

[2Design]

27. thanks for your help......

your right, bush has said mission accomplished there too....he has wasted our resouces in Iraq and thinks everyone should clean up after his mess.....he has never gone after the right people all along. They all came from saudi arabia.....just dropping bombs on a lot of wrong people....

sorry about that one tooooooo.


He really is a mess and unfortunately he got unleashed.....need to get Lynddie to take care of that....

[schultzee]

24. We are so much less safe since Shurbery detoured to Iraq, and

I fear he has not a clue how to fight terrorism. I think John Kerry or anyone else could be a better president.

[daleo]

41. It was stupid of the U.S. to even ask during a Canadian election

I can't believe they were serious. Perhaps some kind of provocateur action. After the election is over, it would not surprise me if the Canadian government did agree to an extra month in Afghanistan. For better or worse, Canadians feel this "peacekeeping" role is fairly legitimate, and I don't think they would balk at an extension, if they didn't think it had some kind of hidden agenda by Bush.

Although that last bit, that's the kicker.