Canadian Greens Oppose the Military Option.

• Position: War for Oil - Green Party of Canada - War on Terrorism, 2001- - Brief Article

Ottawa. October 19, 2001. The Green Party of Canada is deeply concerned that the Canadian government, by participating in the military "coalition" attacking Afghanistan, is only worsening the conditions that will cause the terrorist movement to spread to Muslims previously neutral on the need for "teaching America a lesson.." "Showing sympathy to America for its victims doesn't entail following its military into a counter-productive strategy," says Green Party of Canada leader Chris Bradshaw.

The bombings, which have resulted in the loss of life of many civilians, cannot be explained as attempts to kill only those who planned the horrific and unjustified bombings in the US. They are going beyond the targeting of the Taliban government who continue to harbor the terrorists on its soil. Many in the Muslim world will see only the civilian lives lost and the bombs hitting the Red Cross compound and be comforted by their assessment of American power as unlimited and evil.

Speaking in the House of Commons on February 8, 1991, then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said "The coalition is at war with Saddam Hussein-- not with the people of Iraq." Ten years later, Saddam Hussein is still in power and many thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including a disproportionate number of infants, have died since the end of Gulf War.

"Prime Minister Jean Chretien tells us we are at war with the Taliban, not the people of Afghanistan. What outcome can we expect this time?" asked Green Party Leader Chris Bradshaw, "When will we ever stop throwing gasoline on the fire, helping create the next generation of terrorists?"

A root cause of terrorism in the world today is the continued use of military violence against innocent civilians. Another is the staging of incursions by a powerful government from the foreign soils of undemocratic governments. A third is the actions of governments to destabilize the politics of other countries through recruiting, training, and arming men like Osama bin Laden who claim the status of "freedom fighters" because they oppose regimes unfriendly to their funders/suppliers' "interests."

On June 5, 1947 George C. Marshall while surveying the wrecked economies of Europe noted the "possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned." He went on to state that there could be "no political stability and no assured peace" without economic security, and that US policy should be "directed not against any...