I can’t help but find it more than slightly infuriating, but at least somewhat amusing, that the Canadian politicians those of us on the left count on to have the greatest familiarity with Afghanistan and Canada’s role there also happen  to be among the politicians who most obviously have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about whenever they open their great big yappers.

The most vivid illustration of this pathetic state of affairs comes today from Dawn Black, the New Democratic Party’s defence critic (although Denis Coderre is little better and he should just shut his cakehole). It pains me to say this becausethe NDP’s always been my party,  I like Black personally, some of her strongest supporters are members of my own family, she’s a great MP, a tremendous “constituency politician” and a good person all round.

But this is a disgrace.

The NDP’s plain-and-simple “troops out now” position was embarrassing enough to begin with, and now, in response to an Afghan opinion poll that provides yet another irrefutable confirmation that the NDP’s position represents the exact opposite of what the Afghan people actually want, Black says it just doesn’t match what she’s been hearing out of Afghanistan: “I find some of the numbers quite shocking and surprising,” she said.

Shocking? Surprising?

The only thing really shocking here is the degree to which Black obviously hasn’t been paying attention. If we are to take her statement as sincere at all, and the poll really does contradict what she thought she knew about Afghanistan in the most “shocking and surprising” way, and if it is really all that different from what she’s been hearing, then maybe Black should admit that  she and her party have been listening to the wrong people from the beginning and need to engage in a re-think of the whole thing.

There is something else that’s the tiniest bit shocking about this. If anything, the poll results amount to evidence that provides even less convincing a case that the NDP’s position is groundless and fatuous (i.e. Black should be even less shocked and surprised)  than the evidence that has been painfully obvious and readily available to Ms. Black, the NDP and all the stoppists all along.

This latest poll shows that Afghans believe that things are more or less moving in the right direction, that Canadian troops should not be just pulled out, conditions for Afghan women have vastly improved, President Karzai’s doing a good job, and so on. There is absolutely nothing shocking or surprising about any of this. We knew this long before this poll was released, and the NDP’s senior advisers on the question damn well knew that they were counseling a course of action that the vast majority of Afghans most feared and least wanted.

Almost two years ago, in what was possibly the most extensive public opinion poll conducted in the history of Central Asia, the evidence starkly demonstrated that the NDP position was not just vacuous and shallow but was also clearly unhinged from reality. The poll clearly contradicted just about every piety proclaimed by the Canadian “left” on the Afghanistan question.

That poll showed 88 per cent of the Afghan people opposing the Taliban, and even in the war zone, 81 per cent of the people were against the Taliban, and even American military operations were viewed favourably by 83 per cent of respondents. Around the same time, another public opinion poll showed that 85 per cent of Afghans said living conditions had improved since the Taliban’s rout, 75 per cent said security had improved, and 87 percent said the overthrow of the Taliban was a good thing.

In what should have thoroughly smashed the bigoted “Afghans are irredeemably misogynistic and backward and reactionary and they’re beyond help” line so commonplace among stoppists, the poll found nearly 90 per cent of Afghans said women should be educated and should have the right to vote.

The really infuriating thing about all this is the NDP is holding its own supporters hostage on a fundamental principle, in one of the greatest challenges of our time. The principle is solidarity. The challenge is the struggle against slavery, theocracy, misogyny and fascism.

If I have to choose between my loyalty to the NDP and the far greater and more urgent duty of loyalty to the Afghan people, I know the choice I’m making.

In a heartbeat.