These are great pictures, thanks Kate.

For the women huddled and tented in burkas and thereby their very identity banned - astoundingly sad to see. Got some real ground work on human rights to do there.

I guess you missed the photos taken outside the courthouse in Toronto yesterday.

Hey, shouldn't somebody shoot those kids flying the kite? Isn't that illegal? Ohhhh, yeah, the Taliban are gone. Still, keep moving, nothing to see here, nothing good is happening in Afghanistan.

Yeah I did Kate, I consider those the willfully ignorant. They have a choice, these women in the picture don't, hopefully this world wakes up and helps the ones that can change this situation; the the women and give them rights their men won't allow them to have. IMHO.

It is reassuring to see some Afgan photos on display reminding us it is not as bleak as the MSM effectively paint things.The sad truth however is the shameless MSM are winning this particular propaganda war hands down!
Keep up the good fight!

Canadians have been disengaged from the world for too long. Our dependence on the US means that we haven’t had our captains of industry in the third world seeing what is wrong with those failed cultures and then telling Peter Mansbridge about it. Moderate Muslims there need help, if they tilt to the Wahabism spread by the Saudis, things will get worse for us here at home. Instead we’ve had Chrétien and Team Canada lapdogs doing photo-ops between grovelling for government EDC low cost Liberal financing.

This morning I caught the tail end of a Mansbridge hosted CBC panel. Out spewed the totally un-balanced, CPC hating, Liberal loving, Neil MacDonald who got in the last pessimistic word on Canada’s role in Afghanistan. He said that he thought “Canadians would eventually understand that Harper is Bush’s new best friend and that Canada’s new muscular Foreign Policy was ideologically based and not as sensible an approach as by Liberals.”

Thank you Neil for re-enforcing my conviction that Conservatives must get a majority and close down the CBC which is extremely ideological and I’m tired of paying your salary to hear about your pessimism.

Thank goodness for blogs such as this one which keeps digging for the truth.

I don't know if I would want to buy my meat and vegies from their coner store in the one picture. It shows how pampered we in the protected world realy are.
Thanks Kate.

That's not a Bison. It's an LAV-III.

Great photos.

Afghan History - kite flying, kite running and kite banning:
http://afghanmagazine.com/2004_06/articles/hsadat.shtml

And a reminder of how one country(not Canada)views burkas: "...you may see women in burka (full-body covering, with veil), but they will most likely be visitors from other countries..."
http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/details/WomenTravelers/women_wear.html

Ldd,

It’s hard to believe, if you have never lived outside of Western culture, that women could be happy living behind a veil. But in many conservative Islamic countries they are.

I worked at a women’s college in a Persian Gulf state. In their culture, being veiled in public was the only prim and proper thing for a woman to do. The girls weren’t straining to cast off their robes and embrace the ways of Western women. Although they took some voyeuristic delight in their view of the West (via Hollywood images), they actually had pity for Western women.
In their view, Western culture required women to walk around like a bunch of sluts.

Some Western women who had gotten use to being covered while living Saudi Arabia continued to do so when they moved to the more tolerant Gulf states, where covering wasn't required. They liked the freedom of not having to worry about the state of their hair or clothes when they went out in public.

Here's a slide show from an Afghans view.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sohrab_kabuli/show/

Kate, thanks for sharing these pictures. An acquaintance of mine is deployed over there, and was briefly back home, and since returned. While back here, I was able to convey to him, on behalf of myself and the many, many I have met in the blogosphere, that we Canadian people understand and accept the necessity of their efforts, are with them each day in spirit, pray for their safety and guidance in their difficult work, and are deeply thankful that they are shouldering this load for us. It was a message well received.

The guy taking the pictucers is 23 years old and lives in Kabul.
He's been posting pics of daily life in afghanistan since dec. 2004.

Cal, thank you for your information, however I'd bet the women in the picture live in a very different world then women from the Gulf States and in turn a very different world than here (thankfully), culturally speaking. Wonder how much education these woman in the picture have had? Wonder how young they were when they were married off to a man not of their choosing.

A gilded cage is still a cage nonetheless.

The pics on sohrab_kabuli are excellent. Streets and scenes were familiar. I unfortunately did not have the freedom to walk around and take pictures as I would have liked. The women in the berkas was taken quickly out of the vehicle window. I set the camera on the ledge and I look at my driver as I took the picture so the women would not feel like they were on display.

As for the kites. Canada and the local businesses (AWCC) distributed red/white kites or kites with business logos. Many ended up in our camp, lost by the kite flyer.

The meat markets. Cow, goats, and sheep were tied outside the shops, to be butchered later that day right in front of the shop.

Looks so peaceful until you step on an old soviet mine.

Great photos! Also, a stark reminder of how far it is from here to there in so many ways.

My generation may be the first one (I'm a Boomer) to have never experienced a war, until now. Which is why we don't know what to do with a war; or, at least, too many don't know what to do with it except to follow the nay-saying left-lib Libs, Dippers, and MSM in condemning it, without questioning what the alternative would be.

My grandparents had to deal with WWI, because of a genuine threat to world freedom, and they and my father and mother and all of their generation had to deal with WWII. How would we be living today if those two generations had not engaged in warfare against a despotic madman, who wanted to enslave all of Europe and North America? We might be saluting "Heil Hilter!" every day or whoever the new Furher was and living very circumscribed lives if he and his SS had won that round.

The great irony in all of the limp-wristed anti-war folks having the freedom they do to criticize the government and our engagement in Afghanistan is that if it weren't for the sacrifices made by our forefathers and mothers in defending our democratic ideals and freedoms in a "war to end all wars," they'd be in servitude to a despot instead.

But the lefties don't connect dots.

So, thanks, Kate, for these photos of wartime in Afghanistan. Someone rightly said that "war is Hell." No one's saying it isn't. But someone's gotta do it if we want to protect our freedoms from anti-democratic, totalitarian regimes whose ideal is to enslave all of the populace, except themselves and their close friends and family members (a la Saddam Hussein).

I'm not sure what the FlapJacks, Cretins, Martinos, and Grabums, don't understand about this. (Well, of course Eflfina and the Desmarais family, into whom France Chretien is married, is the real reason the Liberals decided that Canada wouldn't go to war in Iraq.) Although cliched, the saying "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" is so true.

The Libs stand for nothing but their own perks and entitlements, so to Hell with democratic ideals and freedoms. "Our nests are feathered nicely, thank you very much. Why would we want to go to war on principle, even if it's the only way to safeguard Western democratic ideals and all of the freedoms our forefathers and mothers sacrified and fought for ON OUR BEHALF?"

That's the problem with the Dippers and Librano$. They don't do anything for posterity, they only live in the here and now. "Here and now, war is inconvenient and messy," they say, "so, no thanks."

"Fagettabout our future. Fagettabout our children and grandchildren. We live for the here and now, and we're very comfortable, thanks very much."

What a disgrace!

So, thank you, everyone in the armed forces who is in Afghanistan to protect our democratic rights and freedoms here in North America. There are many more here in Candada who salute you, who support you, and who pray for safety than you know.

Nice post New Kid. The only thing I might add is that the socialists are pacifist for a reason; they are pessimists about their own abilities. Or maybe they are realists about their own incompetence.

Either way they try to bury it into denial with their utopianism that everything is going to turn out just fine as long as they don’t do anything. Like Chamberlain, they fool themselves into thinking the enemy will give them a pass if they are “nice”. As long as they avoid conflict they don’t have to face up to their own pessimistic outlook about their inability to win. They just won’t fight.

Unless it’s a fight against a safe opponent -like Bush or Harper. They know these guys won’t torch them so they pretend to have spine by turning Bush and Harper into the enemy. The MSM and the left pretend the bully is someone they know won’t bother fighting with them. In fact Harper has totally ignored the PPG much to their dismay.

Thank God our troops ignore these utopians and will carry the fight for all of us.

I agree with you, nomdenet.

And my assessment as to why they won't fight and why they think they don't have the ability to win is because they have no faith. Or, at least, their only faith is in themselves and they know, and this is smart of them but limiting to them too, that they can't win if their trust is only in themselves. They can't win because, on their own, winning is impossible.

But with faith in God, with faith in democracy, with faith in our abilities to sacrifice, with faith in our being able to be generous, with faith to want for others (Afghanis, Iraqis) what we, ourselves, have, with faith in working togeher, we can win. We can defeat the forces of darkness, of totalitarianism, of nihilism if we work together for the good of not only ourselves but others, and especially others who have far less than we do.

That's what the socialists don't understand. They want us all to be "equal." What they don't understand is that some of us have been given tenfold gifts, others have been given sixtyfold gifts, and others, ninetyfold. In order "to win," we need to give 100% of whatever amount of giftedness we've been blessed with, which means, of course, that some will give more than others, and others will receive more than others. But that's OK. That's what's meant to happen.

If we stop to count the cost, if we stop to count what we're giving compared to what someone else is giving--and God forbid, according to the socialists, if there should be a differntial--we're dooomed.

So, the Utopians are doomed, which is why, nomdenet, you're right when you say that their only tactic to stave off this very scary idea of not being able to win is to go into denial and to scapegoat President Bush and Prime Minister Harper.

I'm with you on thanking God that our troops are doing a detour around the lefties and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, if that's what it takes to defeat the enemy. If there's to be a future at all, that's the only alternative.

This will sound like a mutual admiration society, I guess it is.

New Kid your point about faith is exactly right. There is a strong correlation between capitalism and Christianity and I think it has to do with the ability of people to have "faith". That faith means we don’t need to have big government to look after us. We have faith that the sun will rise and we will enjoy a new day of looking after ourselves.

I should add that I don’t think you have to be Christian to have faith in yourself. I know atheists that are highly moral and have two feet on the ground and have a lot of faith in the goodness of life. I don’t know how they do that, but I can accept that it works for some.

As you say New Kid, the left-wing socialists hate the whole idea of faith because it detracts from their central planning ideas for your life. That’s why they are partnering with the Islamofascists for now, they know this is the last battle for their failed Marxists ideas and they will partner with the devil as they can hear their own death rattle. I don’t know who I despise more - the left or Islamofascists.

Some of you may find it of interest to go to
www.earth.google.com ;download the easily installed software , type in Kandahar as the target and explore the local geography and landscape in faily recent satellite imagery; or Kabul or your home for that matter. In North America or the UK even an exact street address can be called up with amazing resolution ( as if you were only about 200 feet up, In Afganistan the resolution is more like 1500 ft). And it is the full topography including exact elevations.
Robert Albin
Calgary

Thanks for your posts, nomdenet.

As usual you guys don't have a clue. This unnatural fear of the Left is something that fascinates me. Never mind. Where do I begin?

Oh yeah, about socialists not fighting. We don't like pre-emption true. We don't like going to war on a lie(we are not easily fooled). We will fight for a real cause. I would like to draw your attention to the last real war. WW2. Well, just before that another Fascist, Franco of Spain was fighting a civil war. It was in this war that Franco's ally Hitler perfected some of his techniques(ie dive bombing) which he would use to such great devastation in WW2.
Guess who went over from North America and formed their own brigade??? Not Right Wing(some of thenm kinda cheered Franco on, but the Socialists. That's right they formed the Socialist Brigade to fight Fascism years before it became fashionable. So when the fight is real the real fighters turn out to be the socialists.
Of course, the Fascists had big money, big industry on their side so they won the Civil War.
But many were awakened from their slumber by these events.

Myth#2
Socialism isn't about everyone being the same. Its aboout everyone having dignity, everyone having a say. To each according to his needs and abilities. If you have great abilities you would be paid more than the regular worker, just not 700 times more. Certain capitalist obscenities like those you see with regularity would not exist. The head of Exxon retiring with 400 million retirement package. It shows how much power we have given them when they can demand obscene wages, even when the company does poorly.

Socialists understand how the world economy works. Or perhaps how America works the world economy. Every superpower has always been a bully(check for yourself), England, Spain, Ancient Rome,etc. So this is not beating down poor old America, it is merely seeing her as she really is, a single superpower with economic, political and military power greater than any other superpower in history. When you are an elephant surrounded by mice and flies you will in the normal course of "looking after yourself" step on a few mice and swat a few flies. That is just going to happen regardless of the superpower.
The Socialist response is to point out to the elephant that it is hurting some of the co-inhabitants of the space. Sometimes inadvertently and sometimes because she is just fed up with all these mice and flies competeing for her resources and decides to get a little pushy. That is when America sends in the CIA and or the military to handle these things.

Some things to consider if you are supporting the current occupation of Afghanistan:

The US poured millions into Taliban coffers until about four months before 9/11. It was only cut off when the regime refused to sign a contract with US oil giant Unocal to build a pipeline south from the Caspian Basin to Pakistan. It is also surely relevant that the Taliban knew nothing of the plan to attack the US. (The plot was hatched in Germany.) Much was made of the fact that the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden to the US. But Bin Laden was a national hero wounded six times in the anti-Soviet struggle -- which the US financed. When the Taliban offered to turn him over to an international tribunal upon seeing evidence of his guilt in 9/11, the US refused. And then invaded.
Support for the mission was originally strong because of the negative image that the Taliban had. We thought that once they were booted out of power, things would be different. However, western forces have been in Afghanistan for nearly five years and just when it seems (or so we are told) that freedom and democracy are around the corner, the Taliban strike back. I think that the west has fooled itself into thinking that, here and in Iraq, they would be treated like liberators. They are considered invaders, just like the Aryans, Ancient Iranian peoples, Indo-Aryans, Medes, Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Hepthalites, Sassanians, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, British, and Soviets.

So the mission is extended. It now appears to many people that the mission is not intended to ever end because its purpose was, and is, to ensure the US permanent access to Mideast oil and Afghani land for pipelines. But end it will, like every other colonial occupation of Afghanistan has ended -- when the occupiers tire of bleeding. Too bad dozens of Canadian soldiers will have to die before then.

700 times more: You don't think that Stalin, Lenin, Cecesceau, Castro, and all the other Communist leaders (sic) didn't/don't have 700 times more of everything than their serfs...er, I mean, comrades?

I don't recall the Russians taking to court all of their hangers on, who had amassed fortunes, and making public these trials. And Russia, when it was a superpower, wasn't a bully?

I'm trying to imagine the world today, after 9/11, if the West had simply taken a pass on the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Iran and, as the good old socialist goat PET, from his mansion in Mount Royal, used to say "let the universe unfold as it should"? That's what I'm hearing from the socialist left: Just leave them alone.

And then what? More terrorist attacks in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. Does the Left think that if we'd left all these guys alone, the world would be living in peace and harmony?

I haven't heard a policy statement that makes any sense from the Left about what to do about this terrorist threat since 9/11. Only whingeing and whining against the U.S. and anyone else who sides with them against the very real threat to the safety and security of Europe and North America.

Either s___ or get off the pot. What's the Left's plan to deal with the Islamofascists who aren't hesitating to wreak destruction and havoc on North American and European targets? Please no talk about bring in the UN: It is a corrupt and inept elephant and way past its usefulness as a global mediator.

One solution? steve d should join the Canadian military and go to Afghanistan. There, he can change the system from the inside. No more whining and complaining, just hard work and reconstruction: steve to the rescue! Yea, steve!

Socialists won’t fight (I should have added) for freedom. They will certainly put up a big fight for the collective. This is a system based on the human weakness of envy. As long as everyone is equal it doesn’t matter whether service levels in Health Care are good or bad. But they must be equal. Equality is everything to the socialists. But since nothing in life is equal this system doesn’t make sense and socialism fails. Unless it gets propped up, e.g. Trudeaupia stealing from Alberta or Saddam stealing from “oil for food” under Koffi’s UN program.

Unfortunately when the Middle East looked around for models to change its tribal form of government it turned to Europe. In Europe the ME saw Franco, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin and thought – “let’s copy those guys”. Hence the ME has ended up with a perverted form of fascist/socialism that has now partnered with Islam to bring a local narrative to the recruitment process.

These socialist/fascist governments will all fail eventually but the cash from oil (or poppies)is propping them up. We would simply let them implode, but they aren’t doing that yet, they are exploding outwards and are a threat to us. Thus we have to speed up the process of democratizing these areas.

The left expects an immediate solution, that isn’t happening in the ME. The left are pessimists and have “no faith”, as New Kid described, thus they want to cut and run in Iraq and Afghanistan. They now want to go into Sudan and try that, they basically suffer from ADD.

But yes socialists will certainly fight for their cause. The National Socialist Party (Nazi’s) were great fighters, unfortunately.

nomdenet:

Your caricatures of socialists and socialism are pointless. The main problem with Afghanistan and Iraq is that it appears more likely that control of oil was the motivating factor for intervention, not terrorism (most 9/11 hijackers were Saudis) and not restoration of democracy (which never existed in Muslim countries). If you believe in this cause, feel free to sign up...there is no age discrimination at the Canadian Armed Forces any more.

RE: American oil and pipelines,

Ummmm, I think Western Oil from Calgary is the first company to enter into an agreement with Iraq to develope the oil fields there.

Also the people of Afghanistan and Iraq need to heat and cool their homes and cook their food too.

Energy has so far mostly been unavailable.

Reliable energy sources in Iraq and Afghanistan will change way more lives for the better permenently, just as it has here in Canada.

There is just no comparison with what any NGO can deliver in service as to what a stable and secure source of power and energy brings to the quality of human life.

Gotta love that LAV-III's 7-point turn there, eh?

If you are really interested in discovering how the Middle East has become such a mess you have to look at superpower meddling(I know you don't like to do this sort of thing), first England and then followed by USA. Together, they were the architects in the 20th century of what has been a major flash point for people like Ban Laden.

Hmm, I see the lefties are still trying to convince others or is it themselves?

Ldd
What a surprise! Another intellectually lazy Winger. Don't actually find out anything factual you may be surprised at what you find. Then what would you do with your prejudice?

NKOTB
All those leaders you made reference to, Stalin etc., they were despots. Marxist-socialism wants nothing to do with despots. In fact they think government will become unnecessary. Meanwhile, they would like a government that represents all people not just the upper class and a few middle class.
About going to Afghanistan. I know the soldiers mean well but it is too little too late for Afghanistan. After five years of American broken promises they don't really trust what we say. I don't believe they will make any headway. The violence is increasing because the people have had enough of occupation and collateral damage. I don't know how the Americans got us to go over there but it shows how selfish they are. They screw it up and don't want to take any more casualties so, the Dutch, British and Canadians will clean up the mess as best we can and hope that our casualties are not too great. I wouldn't want to follow the Americans into any country they had done their dirty in. Suicide bombings are 21 already this year. They had 7 the entire year last year. The fighting is the most intense since 2001. I think its over. I just hope its not too long before our government finds out and brings the troops home. Bush had his chance and decided to go to Iraq instead of finishing what he started. Then he screwed up Iraq because brainiac Rumsfeld wanted to do it on the cheap. We will be asked to go to Iraq too. I am just waiting for that one. Thankfully, it may not happen because I think the people would come out strongly against such a move. If Harper got a majority government I would expect it within 18 months of his victory.

So, steve d, what happens when the U.S. and Canadian troops come home? A stable Afghanistan? A more stable Middle East? If they'd never gone to Afghanistan, would we have a stable situation in Afghanistan and the Middle East?

We can't just be isolationist here in North America. I suspect that if the N.A. militaries were not in Afghanistan and Iraq, there would be more insurgents fomenting hatred and destruction towards the West and that, by now, we probably would have experienced another disaster on a similar scale to the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

That's just a guess, steve d. What do you think would happen if we had no North American military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq?

lazy Winger??

Really?

Well I don't play hockey and I'm not sure if anyone would classify me as lazy, but I'm willing to look into this scientifically and study it a bit to see if it exists in me steve_d. On your tab of course.

Play it again Sam...."If you'd only listen to me, me, me, I'd convince us all!!"

I found these messages on the Write to the troops space on the DND website--thought I'd share it with all-------------------------Lydia/grade 3 - 6/8/2006 [11:26]
chateauguay, Quebec,, canada
Dear, canadian soldiers i hope you are happy that every one writes to you and get courage from it.i hope you are not too sad to be relly far away from home.i hope youdont all get killed.i am relly going to sad if you all die from that. i hope you feel comefeterbal where you are
well you know what i mean.i hope you finish your job
bye from Lydia

Natasha - grade3 - 6/8/2006 [11:26]
Mercier, Quebec,, Canada
Hi soldiers thank you for helping us, i want to tell you that you are doing great for helping us so i will think of you, so you can do it,i hope you are going to be ok so everyone is hoping for you to save them, good luck soldiers
and i know you can do it.
so don't be scared i won't stop thinking of you because you guys are my favorite hero.
so thanks alot for helping us.

Mikhail/ grade 3 - 6/8/2006 [11:25]
Chateaugeay, Quebec,, cananda
Hello, I hope you can live and win the war. Cananda is hoping you can do this. Do this for canada. Go and do this!
Hailey_Grade 3. - 6/8/2006 [11:29]
Chateaguay, Quebec,, Canada
Hello you guys I hope good.you gus are doing a very very nice thing for Afghanistan.I know the people in Afghanistan are going to be very proud of you.If you win or lose we will stell be cheering for you.If you win or lose you did your best.

Posted by: Ann at June 8, 2006 08:34 PM