Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Where we should put our boots

This little gem by Murray Brewster was hidden on the bottom of p. 4 of the Globe and Mail on Monday.

U.S. probing ways to keep Canada in Afghanistan

Obama Democrats have quietly sounded out power brokers in Ottawa looking for advice on how to convince war-weary Canadians to keep military forces in Afghanistan after 2011.

Conscious of the deep political and public opposition to extending the mission further, American officials - political and military - are struggling to understand concerns and identify the right arguments to make to the Harper government to "keep Canadian boots on the ground," defence sources said.


Interesting assumption, that. Struggling to understand concerns? Hmmmm, that's a tough one. How about 120 dead soldiers. That's equivalent to 1200 or thereabouts when scaled up to the population of the U.S. How about spiraling costs of war, double the initial estimate. How about the fact that it's not about the "right argument", since there's no right way to fight a wrong war.

Or maybe we're just too dim up here to really understand it all properly, or maybe we understand it all too well.

I know where we should be putting our Canadian "boots", and it ain't on the ground in Afghanistan.

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