Dreams of Wardrobe

Taliban ready to support any party willing to accept its endorsement

General Rick Hillier was fond of saying "The enemy has a vote."

As Canada enters its first wartime election in more than 60 years, the Taliban is eager to be the first enemy of Canada to exercise that unofficial and ill-gotten franchise.

In a statement released yesterday, Qari Muhammad Yussef confirmed Defense Minister Peter MacKay's fear that the Taliban would take the federal election as an opportunity to step up attacks on Canadian troops. "Yes, I know that the election is being held in Canada. That is why our attacks on Canadians are increased."

Yussef insisted that a withdrawal from Afghanistan "good for that party and for their nation and for the Canadian people."

"My suggestion for the next prime minister is to withdraw Canadians from Afghanistan," he added. "When any of these party leaders come to power, the first thing they must do is ask the Canadians to come from Afghanistan to Canada."

Certainly, one can expect that Canada's mainstream political parties will unequivocally reject the Taliban's endorsement. Unfortunately, one can't quite put it past the Green party -- proving itself to be nuttier and nuttier as this 2008 election progresses -- to accept the Taliban's support.

Certainly, they would be contradicting their own stated values in order to do so, but -- as previously said -- fringe political parties tend to embrace fringe politics.

Then, meanwhile, there are Canadians such as the craven individual who wrote this.

Unfortunately, there are Canadians among us who are prepared to cave in to the demands of the Taliban, and are willing to abandon their own values in order to do so.

In one sense, it's hard to blame them -- no proper-thinking Canadian likes the prospect of war, and no proper-thinking Canadian is anything other than saddened to see Canadian soldiers killed or injured. Nor is any proper-thinking Canadian anything other than saddened by the civilian casualties that inevitably come with modern warfare.

But one can safely assume that Canadian soldiers will not be voting with the Taliban in their effort to elect a government that will turn its back on Canada's responsibilities to the Afghan people and to the international community.

There is one other thing to be thankful for.

Fortunately, the Taliban's vote doesn't really count.