Six Canadian soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan
punditman says:
Six more dead. We are told by the Harper government and all the pro-war supporters with their yellow ribbons on their Hummers, that Canadian troops support the Afghan mission 100%, and that anyone who criticizes Canadian policy is adversely affecting the morale of our professionally trained military. Oh, and they are helping the Taliban too.
These claims fly in the face of elementary logic. First, it makes no sense that all troops support a dubious mission that has no end-game strategy. Has anyone done a poll? An unbiased scrutiny of Canadian soldiers' opinions is hardly likely but here is what one mother of a soldier who served in Afghanistan, was wounded, and is now home, has to say.
Assuming she is a real person and not some devious insurgent disguised as the mother of a returning soldier (I hear the ludicrous claims already), then perhaps she is on to something? No doubt they will weather it through, as soldiers do, but that doesn't mean that each and every grunt in the field agrees with the mission, or thinks that it is working. We may never know.
Nor does it follow that criticism back home affects the fighting ability of a force of professionals who joined the army of their own free volition, and who by now, certainly know what they are getting themselves into by the time they are shipped out, or they should.
Finally, the accusation that criticizing the mission amounts to helping the Taliban--the favoured bookmark in the Harper-Bush play book--barely warrants the time and space it has taken to record this disgusting, political cheap shot.
