On October 7,  the people of western nations were obliged once again to hang their heads, on the day that marked eight years since the invasion began. The beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan by imperialist forces eight years ago has taken its toll on both that country and all the guilty nations, not least of all, Canada. Still, flimsy goals of western powers go unmet in the East while the cost of this massive occupation weighs on a battered capitalist economy.

Reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan have varied over the years. In the beginning, many were under the impression that it was retaliation for a 2001 attack on civilians in the American city of New York. Since then it has become increasingly less likely that the perpetrators of those attacks will be found, or even that their capture and trial is necessarily on the “to do” list of western powers operating in Afghanistan.

After only 3 months of being functional rulers in that country, the public goal of the conflict radically altered to include the spread of United States-style democracy. This goal included the appointment of Hamid Karzai, a former CIA agent and Afghan monarchist, as leader of Afghanistan by the United States in December 2001. Karzai’s Afghan government has been continually criticized for its economic reliance on the opium trade, as several cabinet ministers are wealthy opium lords.

In Canada, where people so often pride themselves on a more progressive stance than our southern neighbours, the fight to end the war continues. Often the streets are filled with those who protest the increasingly deadly presence of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. Yet, the right-wing governments which have operated control over the Canadian Armed Forces during the war have continued to push for more time in Afghanistan, all the while educating it’s soldiers on the importance and righteousness of the conflict.

The struggle against Canadian involvement has taken many forms while the war has raged. Protests, petitions, and even corporate opinion polls have repeatedly shown overwhelming opposition to military operations in Afghanistan. During a rally of peaceful cooperation on June 3rd, 2008 the opposition parties in the House of Commons voted to allow war resistors from the United States the right to remain in Canada. The Conservative Canadian government has since ignored this, and many war resistors have been returned to the United States to stand trial and face imprisonment. While the leading parties have agreed to continue involvement in military operations until 2011, the Conservative government has alluded to another possible extension.

The antagonism bred by the corporate governments between poorly educated soldiers and other citizens against the Canadian public continues to disrupt the unity of the nation. Such a burden of national strife for the political and economic gain of the ruling political parties is even more harmful now during a crisis of capitalism in which unemployment has reached 8.7 per cent. Cultural, economic, and political boundaries are being drawn in the Canadian psyche, which even in the best fiscal and most peaceful circumstances, could take years to erase.