This week, as we’ve done all too often since 2002, Canadians received and honoured more war dead from Afghanistan. Sitting at the Legion prior to heading to the bridge I heard the question asked that is asked so often there: “Why are we there? Those people have been fighting for thousands of years, we’re not going to change them”‘

The speaker knows we are there as part of our commitment to both the UN and NATO and in part as a friend and ally of our American neighbours. He, like thousands of other Canadians, want some understanding that this mission isn’t just about our soldiers dying in numbers greater than our allies. It’s an extremely valid question as we prepared to go to the bridges to honour four more fallen Canadians, a total of eight in just three weeks.

One thing we need to remember that makes the NATO mission in Afghanistan different from past wars in that country. We are not fighting the Afghan people, we are fighting FOR the Afghan people. We are fighting to allow them to form a free society with a democratic government. It will not likely be exactly as we have but that is ok, they are different culture to us. Freedom can translate many ways. Read the rest of this entry »