Canada’s role in Afghanistan could be election issue

The term 9/11 will no doubt survive in our lexicon for decades.

For anyone who watched footage of the horrific collisions into the World Trade Center towers of two hijacked jetliners – a third missed its target thanks to the heroics of its doomed passengers, while a fourth slammed into the Pentagon – those numbers provide an instant reminder of that fateful day in 2001 and how the world changed dramatically in the hours and days following.

Our close links to the United States will ensure the anniversary date remains in the public consciousness – Sept. 11 is Patriot Day.

Sept. 11 is a good day to ask yourself how you feel about our country’s role since that fateful day in 2001? It’s easy sometimes to forget that we are at war in Afghanistan, not serving our traditional peacekeeping role.

Just how prominent 9/11 plays in our memory will depend a lot on future events and how close, or far away from, we get to the notion of world peace. That sentiment ebbed and flowed through the latter part of the 20th century. But how many people remembered that today (Sept. 10) marks the 70th anniversary of Canada’s entry into the Second World War?

The security measures undertaken in the days following 9/11 have receded in our area – while close at hand, those unsmiling, heavily armed soldiers no longer stand guard at the entrance to CFB Esquimalt or Naden, same for patrol boats at the mouth of Esquimalt Harbour. But pre-boarding screening for commercial flights remains more stringent than pre-9/11 –  not to mention we now need a passport or similar document to enter the U.S.

Does it feel like enough is enough, or are we willing to accept these facts as part of the drill in North America today, where the goal is to ensure residents feel safe from the threat of terrorist activities?

That question may well end up an issue in this fall’s federal election.