Many in Canada howl that we should not be militarily involved in Afstan because the government is too corrupt:

…Afghanistan is now the second most corrupt nation on earth, just after Somalia, according to Transparency International, a Berlin-based advocacy group. That represents a level of corruption difficult to imagine and this is why allies now see the Karzai government as a bigger threat to the stability of Afghanistan right now than even the Taliban insurgency.”

This is what the money of Canadians and the lives of our soldiers are supporting and it is a battle that we cannot win. We should leave now…

Yet our government is working very hard, with general approval, to strengthen links with another country in the area (which the Liberals are also mad keen on courting) that has very serious corruption problems of its own:

Canada-India trade talks overshadowed by corruption scandals

The difference? India is a country that lights up dollar signs in Canadian eyes. While corruption in Afstan is really just a convenient justification for those flatly opposed to our military presence there.

There are also major human rights problems in both countries but we only obsess about them in one. There’s a hell of a lot of willfully blinkered hypocrisy in Canada:

Kashmir and the Great Game–and double standards

In fact we are so desperate to gain Indian favour–and business–that we even abandon our supposed principles on human rights:

Tories apologize to India over visa feud

The Harper government has issued a groveling apology to India in a spat that began when Canadian visa officers barred several members of the country’s security agencies from coming here.

New Delhi had summoned Canada’s high commissioner to lodge a protest over the rejection of Indians who had worked for its army or intelligence services in the contested Kashmir region – which the Canadian visa officers termed notoriously violent.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney issued a statement Friday saying Canada works closely on security matters with India.

“The Government of Canada therefore deeply regrets the recent incident in which letters drafted by public service officials during routine visa refusals to Indian nationals cast false aspersions on the legitimacy of work carried out by Indian defence and security institutions, which operate under the framework of democratic processes and the rule of law,” Mr. Kenney said in the statement…

See the post above about Kashmir for more about that “rule of law”.  Mr Kenney might also do well to read this:

In India, Torture by Police Is Frequent and Often Deadly

Canadians are no pure boy scouts.  Like everyone else we see what we want to see to suit our purposes; and then we also have our own supremely smug self-satisfied regard.  Nonetheless we essentially follow our self-interest.

I would also point out that by staying seriously engaged in Afstan we have at least some chance of affecting its government’s behaviour on these matters.

Update: The post is also at the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute’s 3Ds Blog.

Mark
Ottawa