Canadian flag lowered for the last time at Kandahar airfield, Lee Berthiaume, News, Dec 1, 2011
http://news.nationalpost.com/
On the same day that the Canadian flag over Kandahar airfield was lowered for the last time, a private member’s bill for the creation of a Department of Peace supported by the NDP, the Liberals and the Greens was introduced in the House of Commons. Force is sometimes necessary.
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But as we discovered in Afghanistan, force doesn’t yield neat solutions and entails a high cost in blood. So the issue is how to resolve root causes in order to prevent the need for military intervention.
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A Department of Peace with a cabinet-level minister would enhance our tools of ‘soft power’ – diplomatic, political, economic and legal that would provide new and better options for conflict resolution. The Conservative government is spending tens of billions of dollars on fighter jets and frigates. Isn’t it time for us to invest in tools for peace and not just tools for war?
Larry Kazdan, – Vancouver, B.C.
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