prison break

I was walking to work this morning, listening to my usual CBC morning show As It Happens, which was following up on the huge prison break in Kandahar last Friday. Now it's being reported that up to 400 insurgents amongst the 1000 dangerous criminals are roaming around, while the Canadian defence minister plays the classic "Well, they're the ones who screwed up" game (they being the Afghani government). This is despite evidence of requests filed last year for upgrades to the prison's security.

Also, with allegations and suspicions flying around about whether this was an inside job, it just goes to show once again how little I (and many average Canadians, I suspect) really know about what goes on in Afghanistan. A military representative on the show put it succintly- "Things are never what them seem in Afghanistan. Loyalties are bought....but this can change at any time."

And something else I found out in the process of reading about the prison break: Canada's tentative pull out date of Afghanistan is 2011! Oh, those memories of a 2009 pull out date seem so distant now. Was it even 2009? I don't know, some ridiculously idealistic timeframe that only the NDP are capable of dreaming up.

As a disclaimer, I don't consider myself by any means an adept analyst of Canadian politics or foreign policy. However, I am slowly getting into the habit of engaging myself at a new level- that of the eligible voter. That's right- I have never voted in a provincial or federal election as of yet, but in anticipation of one (that is, if the Liberals ever decide to show up for motions), I am attempting to have some sort of reference point for myself.

My political party of choice is yet to be decided- but as for now, it is definitely not the Conservatives as long as Stephen Harper is controlling the mothership. As my mother mused once, while driving me to the mall: "Stephen Harper...he looks like evil man."

I don't know about evil, but the things he gets away with are quite atrocious.