RUSSELL D STORRING wrote in his article "A Soldier's Life": "We may not personally know each and every soldier who has laid down his or her life for Canada...".
I have been a soldier in an army involved in the conflicts in Europe in the 90’s before I immigrated to Canada. It was very ugly. The worst part were not the sufferings and the killings and the casualties of the war. The worst was the news propaganda glorifying the soldiers and the war, on every side involved in the conflict. Please someone explain me how is it that the soldiers in Afghanistan are laying their lives down for Canada? How are our children going to benefit from the money that the government spends on the war, instead of putting them against helping Canadian parent raising healthy and well-educated Canadian kids? Or is it the goal of the Canadian government to have young generations deprived of the parental care and good education, as a pretext of them having no other choice for decent earnings when they grow up but to join the paid military forces. That is the case in the States and I hate seeing that happening here.
Am I the only one who notices that the news lately is 70% about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? What am I supposed to say to my kid when he asks me to explain him what are those Canadian people doing there, instead being home with their spouses and children? Does an opium farmer in Afghanistan need protection by a Canadian soldier more that a kid needs a father home?
Please explain.

   

The aspect the "Peace movement" avoids is that on a practicle basis it is preferable to have trained, armed equiped citizens in armoured vehicles being attacked far far away than unarmed, vulnerable civilians attacked by the same crazies here on our streets and in our buildings.

911 and the Yonge street shootings were an object lesson of how our citizenry on the street are tempting soft targets. Consider for a moment the hypothtical sceniario of a car bomb or suicide bomber in that same Boxing Day crowd. A suicide bomber in the Air Canada centre on game night.

One a terrorist attack the other the results of getting in the crossfire of a gangbanger street fight.

   

Sending troops abroad we are begging for 911 to happen at home. As far as the Yonge St. death, if we have criminals locked up or executed instead walking free and protected by the government, things like that shoudn't happen.

   

With drawing from Afghanistan to appease the crazies from attacking us in Canada?????

Get real....do you believe all that leftist crap?

I bet you think that .03% CO2 in the atmosphere is dangerous. Or that second hand smoke is as dangerous as plutonium or thallium.

   

It was well known that the Afghan regime sheltered terrorists within Afghanistan -- the same terrorists who planned 9/11, although 9/11 really does not have much to do with it, other than the fact that it served as the wake-up call.

Terrorism poses an unacceptable risk to, not only global security, but also our security here at home. If terrorists operating out of Afghanistan can manage to fly jet liners into the World Trace Center, they can do something similarly terrible to us. Any government that would allow terrorists to plan attacks on civilians from safety within their borders must be removed from power. It is not only the right of the international community to do so, but it is also our responsibility.

However, such a removal can only be justly performed as a multilateral act. Afghanistan passes this litmus test. Let it be known that Iraq does not.

   

As far as I'm concerned 911 did happen to us, 24 Canadians died that day. We should all be concerned what happens in our neighbors backyard. To not be concerned or to not take action against such terrible acts would make me extremly ashamed of being Canadian. IF we dont put a stop to it who will ? Dont say its soley an American problem it isn't. Look at the ramifications its costing us just financially alone, we now need passport to fly into the US and by next year when travelling by land into the US you'll need one as well.

We can either do what you propose do nothing . wait and hope they dont attack us in a 911 attack and if they do attack us in such a manner, would it be ok with you to do something then ?

If you answered yes to the latter, I must ask why wait and take a chance what if it is your loved one that gets killed in such an attack. War is ugly, but to do nothing is even uglier IMO.

The only way for evil to exist is for good people to sit down and do nothing.

   

I bet some of those Canadians that died on 9/11 had children.
Also some kids are able to goto school now in Afghanistan.

   

Are you fucking serious? These taliban destroy 5000 year old stone monuments because of some fucked up twisted mind set, they outlawed KITE FLYING FFS. You think decent people should turn away from that so we can all 'just get along'. The simple truth is that they would have come again and agian and again, they need to be wipped off the face of the earth. Do they come to North America and respect our culture? No, they rant and rave and demonstrate and call US the fucking racists, they do not accept our way of life, but you think they would because we didn't go over there and remove them from power and send them scurring to the hills? I don't want to live in a world were I am force to accept the prepetuators of evil. They are so weak of spirit they can even look a women in the eyes, I mean good GOD in heaven above, how can you reason with a person who has so little self control, who is afraid of the very thing he claims is so weak? Pull your head out of your political correct ass and remember this, they don't practice political correctness in Iran, Dubai, Darfour, ect, ect, ect.

   

Could I interject some seriousness?

Canada is part of NATO and NORAD, as such we have commitments to our alliance partners. If they are seriously attacked, we are obliged to take action to protect them. Even if we think they did something stupid and asked for it, within reason we are bound to come to their defence. That's how we can count on them to come to our defence when we need them.

The US has been meddling in other countries' affairs for a very long time. This includes destabilizing legitimate governments and raising a radical faction within those countries when they ally themselves with a rival. Arab nations including Afghanis have asked the US to stay out of their internal politics, but they haven't. The Americans have been asking for trouble for a long time. Al Qaeda has some legitimate complaints about the US, but obviously I believe their methods are not justified. Terrorist attacks can never be justified. But if you engage in covert military action within their country, expect retaliation.

I have long said, the correct means of dealing with Al Qaeda is to treat them as criminals, send in military to arrest them. Take them alive to trial. But no, Bill Clinton send a B52 to drop bombs on their training camps or a cruise missile into a cave. The only difference between that and a truck bomb is the price of the weapon. Using terrorist tactics against terrorists only justifies their tactics. As the philosopher Neitzsche wrote, "That which does not kill you makes you stronger." Killing some of them but not arresting the survivors only creates martyrs to recruit more terrorists. Expect the terrorist organization to retaliate with something even more dramatic, and eventually they'll attack you on your own soil. Oh wait! They did, it was called 9/11. I posted on another message board that they would do so. In fact, after a discussion/brainstorming with a friend we predicted the perpetrator, method of attack, and target of 9/11 six months before it happened. I just didn't know when, and frankly expected it would be years later. But no one listened to me.

The only reason Al Qaeda doesn't attack the US now is Iraq is their enemy too. From their perspective, their greatest enemy has invaded their second greatest enemy, and done so with more military might than anything they could ever hope to muster. I expect they’ll continue to leave the US alone as long as the US is tied down in Iraq.

So, it’s time for the US to learn from Canadian values and experience. During the Red River Rebellion the military used whatever force was necessary to win the battle. However, after the battle they didn’t use their victory to oppress the looser. They did not follow the doctrine “to the winner goes the spoils”. Instead they addressed the grievances of the rebels, they got everything they fought for. Well, the province of Manitoba was founded, and Saskatchewan was founded initially as a territory, and white settlers got title to their own land so Ontario immigrants couldn’t just come in and take their farms; however Metis people got the total land area they demanded but it was broken into little parcels too small to ranch bison. The Metis got shafted, but at least they got as much land area as was theirs before Confederation. It’s time to do the same thing with Afghanis. The only reason they tolerate Al Qaeda was the need to end meddling in their country by superpowers. It’s time to stop trying to control Afghanistan, and let them run their own country their way. Of course that won’t go the way you want, and they will have problems, but their primary grievance is meddling so fine, get the hell out.

As for the Taliban, they never were the same thing as Al Qaeda. The Taliban were a political party elected in Afghanistan and they ran the country much better than the warlords who came before them. They’re hardly saints, by Canadian standards they’re pretty bad, but whenever you meddle in internal politics of another country you lose. It’s far too easy for a local politician to raise support by demonizing a foreigner. You use any military force in their country and you become the demon that everyone rallies together against. It doesn’t matter how justified you were, or how bad the guy you stopped was; simply using force against a local will paint you as the enemy that everyone rallies against. You very quickly become an army of occupation, forced to suppress and subjugate the entire population.

The Taliban offered to hand over Al Qaeda to the US on the condition they see the evidence. That was a reasonable request considering they were the government of Afghanistan at the time and George W. was demanding they hand over a local. Instead George W. showed the evidence to Canada, Britain, France, Australia, and everyone else. The only government that mattered was the government of Afghanistan; he didn’t show them, he showed everyone else and demanded Afghanistan comply with his orders. There’s no way any country would comply with that. This act if disrespect lost support of Syria and Saudi Arabia, two countries with intelligence within the Arab world. They could have pointed out where Al Qaeda was, who was an Al Qaeda member. They’ve gotten over the insult and now offer their support, but it’s too late, Al Qaeda has scattered. Al Qaeda had infiltrated the Taliban, they would have pressured the Taliban not to hand them over, but given the threat of invasion they may have anyway. Would they have? We’ll never know now.

So now Canadian forces are targeting the Taliban, not hunting Al Qaeda. The enemy who attacked our ally was Al Qaeda, no one else. The enemy gets away and we’ve become an army of occupation, targeting one political faction to support another one. The current government is more to Canadian liking, and the actions of the Taliban are so bad I refuse to call them a political party, but they are a faction and view the current Afghan government as their political rival. This mission is already descending into the same quagmire as Iraq.

joombush asked why did we go? We went to protect our ally and to clean-up the mess they left behind. Unfortunately they insisted on continuing the mess and dragging us into their mistakes.

   

They were hardly elected. Were they better than the warlords? In some ways they really were. At first they were a lot more reasonable. As they gained more power they got worse. They used war to conquer Afghanistan.



You are right that it makes us look bad every time something happens. It also makes the Taliban look bad when they do things. Speaking of the Taliban ... If we were to just leave they would step back in in a second.

I can tell you that we are hardly an army of occupation there. We do not have nearly enough troops for that. That's where the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police come in. We are helping them and training them to control their own country. It's impossible for them to do that with the Taliban threat there.



From the book I read on that subject it said the Taliban leaders came together and decided to let OBL and friends stay because they are 'Muslim brothers' and there was no need to hand them over to the Americans.



I'll have to disagree. It is much different in Afghanistan. I haven't been to Iraq, but I have been to Afghanistan. I would hardly call the Taliban a 'political organization.' A religious organization or a idealogical one, maybe. We are targeting the Taliban for a number of reasons. They are targeting us. We are trying to help stabilize the country. They are trying to stop us.

Did you know that Afghanistan is made up of many different types of peoples? Or that the Taliban is made of mostly by members of the Pushtu tribes who are mainly from Southern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan? Not even half of Afghanis want them in power. But who am I kidding. Where did I get that number from? I can make an educated guess because the other factions hate them. But I highly doubt you can come up with any hard numbers on that issue either.

I do think the Americans went in there wrong. Not that it was wrong in the first place. But they did it the wrong way. Then they diverted to many troops to Iraq that should have stayed in Afghanistan. But that is neither here nor there. It is what it is. We are there and (in my opinion) we should help them with their country. God knows we helped make it the way it is. And contrary to what some believe the best way to do that is to beat the Taliban out because that is the only way that country will stand on it's own.

   

When it was reported that six soldiers were killed I lamented get our troops out of there to my husband. I read the following article and it changed my mind, someone has to do something about the spread of Radical Islam before it's to late for it's victims. Look at the Horn of Africa, genocide is taking place by Arab Muslims and the UN does nothing because it's Muslim Members vote NO. Canada is doing the right thing in trying to stabilize and hand the country back to the people of Afghanistan. We are not enforcing our Western Values on the people, we are trying to stop freedom fighters coming from outside of Afghanistan who are using violence to reinstate a Radical Islamic government. The taliban are not an Afghan fighting force anymore, they are coming from Iran other radical Islamic countries. Should we hand that country over to foreign mercenaries, NO the Taliban isn't concerned with the welfare of the people of Afghanistan it's main goal is to rid the country of our Military because they fear, hate, loathe the concept of a peaceful Afghanistan.

Article: It's a long read but it will open your eyes on how freaking awful it is for females (like the Afghanie women endured) living under Radical Islam.

http://www.islam-watch.org/Others/Women ... -Woman.htm

   

Not trying to be maliciously critical but "freedon fighters" sound like it's straight out the Taliban handbook.

An innocent slip no doubt......No doubt you wouldn't deliberately use the "freedom fighters", on brigands and bandits, who terrorize civilians, try to stop democratic elections, destroy school, and brutally subjugate women.