Monday, January 4, 2010

Come Home


Five more dead and one question: Can the Afghan mission be saved?

So asks John Ibbitson in a column on the front page of this morning's Globe.

More specifically he asks, " Is the Kandahar commitment turning into a failure, or can it still be rescued?"

My answer is Yes and No.

Yes, it is a failure and No it cannot be rescued.

And please do not confuse honoring the dead with questioning the assignment.

One hundred and forty Canadians have died now on this mission and the latest deaths of four soldiers and a journalist are dreadful.

No doubt there have been a few small triumphs on the ground in Afghanistan. No doubt, the Canadian forces have become clearer and stronger.

But this engagement has been doomed from the beginning.

If, in fact, we are to leave next year, it can't be soon enough.

4 comments:

Jeff Taylor said...

One statement sums up the whole current Afghanistan mission : the Russian military could NOT win there in the 1980's with only the USA supplying arms and money to the Afghans. Now the entire Muslim world funds and supplies the 'resistance'. This 'war' will when it is all said and done, make Vietnam seem like a walk through Disneyland.

Anonymous said...

When Harper said Canada would withdraw it's troops by 2011, that tells us Afghanistan is a lost cause and the government is looking for a way out.
Remember it was the Liberals who took Canada to Afghanistan.
I blame the press, especially Canwest Global, for painting Afghanistan as a noble cause for gullible young Canadians to join.
Why are there no Moslem Canadians joining the military?

Gerry Verrier said...

My condolences to the families.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it was the US and Saudi Arabia who were supplying funding to the mujahadin that were fighting the Soviets. And most of the weaponry was funnelled through the Pakistani Intelligence Agency, the ISI.