Protesters 'have no clue': Afghan envoy

[CHIMO]

VANCOUVER — Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada says he was shocked to hear protesters demanding Canadian troops pull out of his country claiming it was better off under the Taliban.

"My embassy just called me this morning and said that some of the demonstrators were saying that Afghanistan was better off under the Taliban," Omar Samad said Monday.

Samad, speaking to a meeting hosted by the Fraser Institute, said the comments reflect a profound lack of understanding of Afghanistan's recent history.

Samad shared the podium Monday with David Sproule, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142894779499&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Looks like the message got through. Agitate, agitate, agitate... It worked for Bush. So beat the drums and make an issue about it.

Well fluff off.

Lets see Harper try and make it an issue without bringing in Quebec. Cancel this program, cancel that program. It all follows the policy of making history and everyone else watching it. Well we knew about that ploy before, we saw it happen. So what is his next move to get a response?

[MrPrax]

1. I heard this clown

on a radio report today--they left out the part about being sponsored by the Fraser Institute.

"My embassy just called me this morning and said that some of the demonstrators were saying that Afghanistan was better off under the Taliban," Omar Samad said Monday.

Again the 'strawman' technique--funny the demonstrators I saw on Saturday to never mentioned Af being better off with the Taliban. But with warlords like Dostrum and Hekmatyar being protected by our boys, does it really matter...

If you want to know what Canadian lives and money are going for...

Here's a slide show courtesy of RAWA
http://www.rawa.org/kab-jan05/build.htm

Good background provided by Cursor's current 4 part series on Afghanistan.
http://www.cursor.org/stories/emptyspace.html

Cursor's roundup page of Afghanistan related stories http://www.cursor.org/stories/archivistan.htm

Part 2 'Pulling the Rug' talks about the development rip-offs, the corruption, etc.

Good article from 2004--nicely footnoted: An Island Named Kabul: Trickle-Up Economics and Westernization in Karzai's Afghanistan