“We are there to defend democracy, the rule of law, the independence of the press.” This statement is being played today on the major Canadian Media outlets from the rally in Quebec to support the troops leaving for Afghanistan.

Really? The rule of law in the western world is simply this. He who has the most money wins. Those that have no money cannot even defend themselves in a small claims court action. If you do not have the $50 to file a reply to an action taken against you, you lose. If you have lots of money you can pay lawyers to beat down your opponent and delay a decision for years, sometimes decades. Anyone who has had any real and personal experience with the rule of law in the western world knows that the rule is simply money alone.

“Independence of the Press”, since when? Virtually all of our Press is controlled by a very small select group of individuals. You might recognize the same headlines on all the different TV stations, radio stations as well as all the newspapers. In the USA, Clear Channel is a major owner of radio and television media. Dissent is not tolerated. Those who were critical of Bush Junior, after the World Trade Towers fell in New York, got fired. They even banned the playing of songs by Cat Stevens like “Peace Train”. Three players own most of BC’s media. None treat the political issues fairly and equally. Commercial advertisers, those who have money, finance the Press. As the corporations conglomerate and monopolize along with the major media chains only the message that is self-serving is delivered. There is nothing “free” about the Press in our culture.

And just what is this democracy we are defending? When we elect our representatives, those who are to represent our wishes, in either the provincial legislature or the federal parliament, they are forbidden to do just that. If they don’t vote as they are instructed they will get kicked out of the party. Some party eh? The foundation of a democratic society is a secret ballot. We are told that we cannot have this in our government houses because you need to know how your representative voted, to ensure he or she is voting the way you would want. What a load of nonsense. Today we know precisely how they will vote even before they do. The way they are told, because it is a public, raise your hand, vote. We should be able to trust our representative in a secret ballot as we selected that person from our community to represent us because we knew him as a neighbour, right? Oh, wait, political parties get to drop unknown candidates into our communities and we have no choice as to the people that we get to choose between as our “representative”. No, as long as there is no secret ballots in our legislative houses, there will be no democracy in the western world.

In our own little “thiefdom“ of British Columbia we can see democracy work this way. The NDP opposition get attacked by the media for any little misplaced statement while the Liberal/Socred/Conservatives get basically a free ride after; an act by the Premier, considered criminal behaviour in BC (drunk driving), after the legislature gets raided by the RCMP seizing boxes of documents, after ministerial aides commit criminal acts including bribes regarding the sale of BC Rail and on top of all this the government justifies a incredibly huge unconscionable raise. The major media is all but silent. Lawyers have earned substantial fees excluding many individuals from exposure and the courtroom. The media doesn’t even talk about the sale of the management contract for BC Hydro to a USA firm for 90 years. Yup, you read that right. 90 years. That would be considered seditious behaviour in real democracies.

So we are in Afghanistan attempting to enforce our system of democracy. In the process we are killing many men, women and children. Our media tells us that the insurgents or the Taliban are putting the innocent women and children in harms way. The logic here is simple yet mostly untold. These defenders of Afghanistan are the people that live in Afghanistan. The women and children are their wives, sons and daughters. Sure there will be other men as well, but this is their country. We are the invaders. The USA was kicked out many years ago. Then came the Russians who were also summarily kicked out. What in Gods name makes us think we are any different? We truly have nothing to offer but a system of corruption that has been perfected in our “Democracy”. We have nothing to teach the people of Afghanistan. They may have something to teach us.

The production of poppies is way up. Some claim 60%. The Taliban had that issue under control. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that just like the Opium War between China and Great Britain between 1839 and 1842, where China banned the importation of opium, (Britain attained great wealth and Hong Kong as victors), is simply being repeated here in Afghanistan. Opium is among the most valuable of all drugs and is the source of morphine and codeine. Our major media, to distract from the truth yet again, discusses heroin alone as what the poppy production is all about.

I worked with our military at the Comox Air Base here in BC. I received a high level of security clearance to work all over the base. I made many friends and have a great deal of respect for the men and women of our services. They are committed and honourable people. I wish I could say the same thing about our legislators, lawmakers and media barons. Their actions are indefensible.