Spend aid money “where we are wanted and where the effectiveness of aid projects can be monitored.”
As chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on National Security and Defence, Colin Kenny has made himself one of Ottawa’s few informed, experienced voices on matters military. The Liberal senator doesn’t always carry the day in debates, but in a capital where defence ministers have short tenure and opposition critics come and go, his voice commands respect. Now, Kenny has had it with the Afghanistan mission. In this op-ed piece, he says the Taliban’s strength is growing, while officials in the Kabul regime we’re fighting to sustain amass drug fortunes and the Afghan legislature passes misogynist law. Echoing what Robert Fowler, the former top diplomat freed after a kidnapping ordeal in Africa, told CBC this week, Kenny argues that “much of the aid money earmarked for Afghanistan should instead be spent in countries where we are wanted and where the effectiveness of aid projects can be monitored.” A dismal assessment, well worth considering