Leaving Afghanistan

 
Canada is in the middle of an election campaign. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that Canadian troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan when the current mission is up in 2011. This is a change in policy since previously Harper had argued that setting a deadline for withdrawal was a bad idea.

The announcement prompted a comment from Jim Davis, the father of a soldier killed in Kandahar two years ago. Here's what the father said according to CTV News [Tories suspend key aide over remarks on soldier's dad].

Earlier Thursday, Davis said it would be ideal to have Canadian soldiers home by 2011 but setting a deadline "undermines the work our soldiers are doing and it undermines the mission."

He said the deadline makes it difficult for Canadian soldiers to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people if they know troops will be gone in two years.

"I would never want to see another soldier go in harm's way so I can justify my son's death," Davis told CTV's Canada AM.

"But at the same time if we pull up stakes and come home when we're not ready to -- when the mission is not complete -- if we did that then my son died in vain."

I think we should cut and run right now. We are not going to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people as long as we continue to occupy their country and bomb them.

Does that mean that all of our Canadian soldiers died in vain in a failed mission? Yes, unfortunately, it does mean that. Should we continue the mission just because some soldiers have already lost their lives? No, that doesn't really make sense, does it? If we realize that we made a mistake and will have to withdraw sooner or later before winning hearts and minds, then what's the point of staying and sacrificing more Canadian lives?

I wish people would stop trying to justify continued involvement in Afghanistan by using the argument that our soldiers will have died in vain. Sometimes we make mistakes and soldiers pay the ultimate price for our errors. It's not their fault. They are doing their job and should be respected for that—perhaps they should be respected even more for doing their job in spite of the flawed policies of our politicians.

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