Are we making a difference?

Another dead Canadian soldier today.  Trooper Brian Richard Good, God rest his soul. The first, but more than likely not the last, of 2009.  I don't know. I find myself thinking 'enough already', let's get the hell out before any more Canadians lose their lives. Personally I'm unsure a group like the Taliban can ever be defeated.  It's sanity versus insanity. How do you battle people who put no value on human life? How do you drag a culture from the 15th century into the 21st? If we're accomplishing something over there, and God I hope we are, I also think we need to make much, much more of it.  There needs to be a big PR push to tell all the rest of us, the rest of the world what kind of strides we're making.  Because I really don't know anymore.  I had heard, at one point that girls and women were able to go back to school, to work, to enjoy the same rights as men.  That democracy was making a foothold. But I've not heard much in a long while. Seems all we're fed these days are death notices.  Another damned IED.  Another dead Canadian. Don't get me wrong.  I think our armed forces are the best in the world and I think the men and women who wear the uniform are aces.  Which is why I feel so brutal every time I read of one of them being killed. Are we making a difference?  Can we? Somebody set me straight.

Comments

[Pat]

I was in the States before Christmas talking to an American soldier on leave from Afghanistan. When I mentioned Canadian forces were there too, he said, "Yes, there was one soldier who was attached to our unit." He had no idea that there were any other countries' armies there at all.

[Daniel J. Christie]

The absolute last thing the Afghan mission (or any war, conflict, incursion, invasion or whatever anybody cares to call it)needs, Neil, is a "big PR push".

It was a big PR push that got us into this in the first place. A big PR push backed by our own hubris, jingoism, flag-draped do-gooderness and the perfectly good sense not to touch Bush's Iraq with a ten foot pole.

But why are we in Afghanistan? Well, it started out as our default position vis-a-vis Iraq. We were going to help in George's relentless hunt for Osama bin-Laden (remember him?). Then it was about sending little Afghan girls to school (never mind little Canadian girls in the neglected outposts of Labrador and the Far North. Then it had to do with rebuilding (rebuilding what exactly? The Afghan auto industry? Condo towers?) Then Rick Hillier, just before he packed it in, said at a Red Fridays Rally in Toronto that it was about (trust me - I'm not making this up) the right of Afghan women to wear high heels.
Then it was about....oh, what's the use? We're in Afghanistan because we're in Afghanistan and that's about as complicated as it gets. Just like wearing red on Fridays, Afghanistan will go out of fashion and we'll get out just like the Russians got out and Alexander The Great got out and everybody in between got out. But, before we leave we'll declare victory and congratulate ourselves on the fantastic job we did of not changing a damned thing (except maybe the name of the 401) and continue to interchange the words 'hero' and 'victim' with self-delusional impunity.

After all -we're Canadian. It's what we do.

[Tom Pike]

That is a tough one Neil. Can we do it? I have my extreme doubts. I would love to see success in Afghanistan. I think it takes at least a generation. Not a dozen years or even the handful. It is not that some people there don't see or appreciate or want what we are offering. But there is a big enough minority who don't. And destruction and intimidation are easier and have greater immediate result than building and empathy. I think the real issue is people and cultures are more complex than we imagine. Try and change how an individual behaves (even if they want to change). Now try it across a language and cultural barrier and add in religion and a totally different outlook on life. Do it again across and entire country with leaky borders. I think building a country in a generation is optimistic. The good people of Afghanistan deserve a future. I just don't think we can deliver. I think we need to focus on battles that can be won that perhaps are less sexy. Do a thoroughly good job and move on to the next one we can win. There are plenty of those around. Our troops are the best. The best just isn't always enough.