Vindication for Jack Layton

From the National Post:

So now it’s time to talk to the Taliban.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told reporters on Tuesday that the Taliban has an important role to play in laying the foundations of a new Afghanistan. “We encourage a reconciliation process that is inclusive of all Afghans, no matter their ethnicity,” he said.

Now cup your hand to your ear and listen for the caterwauling of the uber patriots here on the home front decrying the minister’s capitulation to the enemy. Hmm. Oddly quiet. Could this minster really represent the government that so cravenly branded NDP leader Jack Layton “Taliban Jack” four years ago for suggesting exactly the same thing?

Layton earned the epithet when he suggested that after a century of trying to bomb the region into submission a better strategy might be to open up a line of communication. In another manifestation of their binary perspective on issues, the Conservatives took this to mean that Jack was a big fan of the Taliban and their horsewhipping of women.

“Is it next going to be tea with Osama Bin Laden?” asked Peter MacKay. A Globe and Mail columnist indignantly wrote “Would he pull out the chairs for their representatives? Would he pour tea for those who have killed 23 Canadian soldiers this year?”

Independent bloggers –rarely known for putting the “B” in subtle — went even further one insisting that Layton “loves dead Canadian soldiers”. On television commentator David Menzes solemnly pronounced that every time a soldier died it brought a smile to Jack Layton’s lips.

Of course this is nothing new for the political right, which has an unfortunate tendency to frame every conflict through the lens of World War Two. It’s always Hitler and the Nazis. Any compromise is like turning tail at Normandy. Any endorsement of diplomacy is Chamberlain at Munich.

But Afghanistan is not Europe. And the Taliban are not the Nazis. Afghanistan is a Godforsaken country of largely illiterate peasants loosely affiliated with rival tribes and gangs. If every last member of the Taliban was magically lifted from the land it’s possible nothing would change. This isn’t Holland waiting for western liberation. It’s a country so riven with violence and instability that citizens show loyalty to no one lest they find themselves on the wrong side should the fighting ever stop.

So yes, sometimes you have to talk to the enemy. In fact post-WW2 realpolitik has shown sometimes you even have to get into bed with the enemy.

So almost four years after Layton suggested talking with the Taliban the minister acknowledges this is now official policy. For a guy who was labeled a soldier-hater and a Taliban-lover Jack Layton is remarkably gracious about the turnaround. I asked him recently if he was planning to ask for an apology and he demurred. “As long as the right thing gets done I don’t really care”.

There’s another lesson the Conservatives could learn from the NDP leader. He’s man enough to set partisanship aside when his rivals are actually getting something right.

John Moore is the host of Moore in the Morning on NewsTalk 1010. Outside of southern Ontario he can be heard at newstalk1010.com.