Not so confident of the moral certainty of Afghanistan
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It’s easy to be grateful on Remembrance Day.
That’s particularly true for anyone who gets the privilege of interviewing some of the ever fewer remainders of what some call the greatest generation — a veteran of the Second World War.
Every year for the past 20 years I’ve had that honour and in every one of those interviews I was struck by the certainty, that yes, it was the right thing to do.
There was no moral ambiguity back then, no question about the driving imperative to defeat Hitler and all he stood for. That was a given.
As I wrapped up my interviews this year, I got to bask in that moral certainty for a little while and I enjoyed it. Eventually though, I had to leave the 1940s and looking around me in 2009, I couldn’t help but ask, where is that certainty now?
The people from the current Canadian military I’ve had dealings with have pretty much the same drive I saw in those older guys, the same urge to serve, to do their utmost to protect Canada and to do so effectively.
I’m not so confident about the moral certainty of the Afghan mission, though.
I don’t really know why these good, strong, bright people are being sent into that Afghan hell hole to fight and kill and suffer and die.
After all, the terrorists on 9/11 were from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. There were no Afghans — and they did their training in Germany and the United States, not Afghanistan.
Are we there to protect the women?
A just cause, to be sure, but why Afghanistan? Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are just as oppressive to women — and at least those countries had something to do with 9/11.
Maybe our troops are over there to help democracy grow.
Another noble cause.
Too bad about Hamid Karzai though. I mean, is there anyone who can keep a straight face while declaring the Karzai government legitimate? That election was a sick joke.
The corruption-riddled Karzai kleptocracy has no legitimacy in my eyes at all, despite the verbal and moral gymnastics used by some in the White House.
So correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t a foreign military that props up an illegitimate and corrupt government be seen as an oppressor? The case can be made and you can bet it is being made, right across Kandahar province and Afghanistan as a whole.
It doesn’t matter that the members of the Canadian forces in Kandahar sincerely want to help. Motivations, don’t really seem to matter. I would say the insurgency grows not so much because the people support the Taliban. Rather, they fight us simply because we’re there.
And so we have another ramp ceremony and yet another, while politicians blather on about troop levels and how many more boots on the ground will be needed for victory.
They don’t talk so much about what winning would look like.
How much time do we as Canadians spend thinking about why this is happening to our young people?
Surely those sterling young men and women are worth a bit of brainwork on our part.
I know when I lower my head on Remembrance Day, I’ll not only remember and thank those from the greatest generation, I’ll also be thinking about Kandahar, about certainty and about why our troops are there and when we can bring them home.
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