The Canadian Dissident

25 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, what has America's "War on Terror" accomplished?  Afghanistan is once again under the Taliban's control.   Iraq is fractured and overrun by competing militias.  Syria is ruled by a former al-Qaeda militant. Yemen is divided by civil war. Israel is bombing Lebanon and committing genocide against Palestinians.   The U.S. is entangled in another long-term war, this time against Iran.  Since 2001, the “War on Terror” has killed millions of people , cost trillions of dollars , caused  environmental devastation , and made the world more unstable and unsafe. It continues to be a complete failure on every front. Unfortunately, the U.S. has failed to learn from their overseas misadventures, and  Canada is still following America's lead, supporting and legitimizing U.S. militarism. If we want a foreign policy independent of the U.S., we must stop collaborating with the U.S. military and withdraw all our troops...

Political polarization can pose a big problem to democratic countries, but sometimes the opposite can also become a problem.  Canadian politics is dominated by the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party. It's not quite a two-party system, but no other party has ever formed government at the federal level.  Under former leader Justin Trudeau, the Liberal Party was center-left or simply centrist, depending on who you ask.  Faced with plummeting polls and the prospect of a Conservative majority government, new Liberal leader  Mark Carney decided to push his party to the right. He started by adopting Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's signature policy: axing the carbon tax. Carney then copied much of the Conservative Party's platform for the April federal election. He promised to tighten border security, cut immigration, "crack down" on drugs, and increase military spending. Much like Poilievre, Carney also leaned into Canadian nationalist sentiment and promis...

Front page of the New York Times on March 20, 2003 In March 2003, the United States invaded Iraq based on a web of lies spun by President George W. Bush. Americans expected to find weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and biological weapons, as well as a program to develop nuclear weapons. After years of searching, inspectors determined that Iraq in fact did not have any weapons of mass destruction and no concrete plans to develop them. The Costs of War Project at Brown University recently estimated 550,000 to 580,000 people have been killed  by the war in Iraq and Syria since 2003, and "several times as many may have died due to indirect causes such as preventable diseases." There are also approximately 15 million Iraqis and Syrians currently displaced by the war. The US and Canada still have troops stationed in Iraq.  Yesterday the Canadian government extended its military mission in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon for another 2 years. Canadian troops wi...

Exhibit at the University of Alberta Rutherford Library, March 3, 2023 The University of Alberta is hosting a small exhibit honouring students who were killed in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Called " Unissued Diplomas ," the exhibit is also on display at the University of Toronto and Saint Mary's University in Halifax. The display includes pictures and short biographies of dozens of university and college students killed in Ukraine since February 2022. Some students enrolled in the military after Russia's invasion and were killed in action. Some were civilians killed in their homes by artillery strikes. Some were trapped under buildings or struck by shrapnel. Most of the students pictured were in their early 20s, but some were as young as 17 when they were killed. The exhibit is co-organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union.  It is on display at the University of Alberta Rutherford Library until March 10. 

Since Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the possibility of war spreading to other Eastern European countries has become a very real danger. Multiple NATO countries are at risk of Russian invasion, including Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. If any NATO country is attacked, Canada is obligated by Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty to come to their aid. This may include " the use of armed force " if deemed necessary. However, sending troops is not required by the treaty. The reality is Canada has nothing to gain from joining a war in Europe, and everything to lose. Canada is currently burdened by record-high debt, and any military action would be very costly. For example,  the  Afghanistan War  cost Canadians an estimated $18 billion. The human cost was also high. 165 Canadians were killed and over 2000 Canadian soldiers were injured. Thousands more were diagnosed with PTSD after deployment. A war against Russia, which has one of the world's larg...

How we study and remember history affects our world in the present. In other words, remembering and commemorating military history is a political act. For that reason, as Remembrance Day approaches, I think it's healthy to question how we remember our country's wars. Remembrance Day in Canada focusses on Canadian and allied soldiers, especially those who were killed and injured in combat. Because all of Canada's wars in the 20th and 21st centuries have been fought overseas, far from the eyes of the Canadian public, we haven't witnessed first-hand the horrific toll war takes on civilians. Modern wars usually kill more civilians than combatants, and many of those who survive lose their homes, their jobs, their families and friends, even their limbs. Civilians don't sign up to live in a war zone, unlike soldiers paid to kill. They are left without choice, caught in the middle of state-sponsored violence. In World War II civilian casualties far outnumbered military cas...

Canada currently has thousands of troops deployed overseas. That simple fact is not secret information, but it's not well known either. The press rarely talks about it and politicians almost never mention it. The Canadian public funds these overseas missions, but the average Canadian knows very little about our military's overseas escapades. How many countries does the Canadian military currently operate in? How many can you name? More importantly, are any of these operations actually necessary for Canada's national security? In Europe, Canada has significant numbers of troops in Latvia and Ukraine. Operation Reassurance , based out of Latvia, has "up to 915" members deployed at any given point in time from the navy, army, and air force. The operation's purpose is vaguely defined as " NATO assurance and deterrence measures" intended to "show the strength of Allied solidarity." It is Canada's largest overseas mission, but it is very diff...