Canadian Casualties in Afghanistan

[August1991]

I walked through a mall in underground Montreal today and on a newspaper stand, I saw the photo of the young Nova Scotian soldier killed in Afghanistan. I stopped and took the time to think. Around me, people were walking, standing, drinking coffee, looking in windows, opening doors.

I thought.

The family of this young man, how do they feel when they go shopping and see the people around them in malls? Life seems so ordinary to others. Afghanistan is so far away. I can't imagine.

How does a mother or wife walking in a mall now feel? How will the young men and women who return feel about all this?

Having lived such a life, I tend to think that people make choices and must live with them. Canadians have no idea about life in Afghanistan, and any Canadian who goes to Afghanistan should not expect any understanding when returning to Canada. That's life.

Yet I think too, whatever our opinions, we should attempt to understand this horrible fear of those abroad, and their families.

Let us not blame anyone for this situation. Years ago, many more Canadian families accepted to live with the same fear. In accepting this fear again, many Canadians are doing something good, once again.

Canada must stand for something.

[gerryhatrick]

Years ago, many more Canadian families accepted to live with the same fear.

What is this in reference to?

Canada must stand for something.

Canada stands for many things. I'm damned proud to be a Canadian. Sounds like you don't think Canada stands for anything. Perhaps you miss a lot of things that are perhaps less obvious than armed conflict.

[Riverwind]

Let us not blame anyone for this situation. Years ago, many more Canadian families accepted to live with the same fear. In accepting this fear again, many Canadians are doing something good, once again.

Choosing to join the military does come with risks and the soldiers in Afghanistan new the risks they were taking (as do police officers, fire fighters and other dangerous public service jobs). However, there is an unspoken contract that we in the rest of society that choose the 'safe' jobs respect the fact that they are doing a necessary job and putting themselves in harms way to do it. For that reason it is harder to talk about why the troops should not be there and how our politicians made a mistake to deploy the troops since it makes it sound like the solider died for nothing. It is much easier to think about how the Canadian soldiers are probably doing some good over there even if the rational for being there in the first place is questionable.

I think I understand better why so many Americans continued to support the war in Iraq despite the evidence that they were duped into supporting a unnecessary war.