The governing Conservatives and opposition Liberals are pretty close to a compromise on Afghanistan regarding when to end the combat mission.
The government is now proposing to end that mission in July 2011 and have the last of the troops leave by the end of that year. The Liberals on the other hand want the combat to end in February 2011 and the last troops brought home by July. There is little doubt that the country’s two main political forces will be able to compromise further, probably splitting the difference and agreeing to end the mission in April 2011 and bring the last of the troops home by October.
We don’t know the name of the last Canadian soldier who will die in Afghanistan but soon we’ll have a pretty good idea of when that death will occur. There is now no major difference in policy between any of Canada’s main political parties. They all have the same position and, as the old joke says, are merely haggling over the price. The price in this case is the exact date when the troops will “cut and run”, no matter what stage the mission is at.
When that date is agreed upon, the politicos will all congratulate themselves and the pundits will beam about how well minority governments work. What will be lost in all of this are the men and women who are serving or will serve in Afghanistan. If we ask Canadians to risk their lives and sometimes make the supreme sacrifice the least we can do is give their lives and their deaths meaning. Having a goal such as defeating the Taliban would be nice. Unfortunately, with the possible exception of Islamic fanatics, no one fights wars like that anymore. The new normal is now that the main function of modern warfare is to have an exit strategy; when the fighting ends is more important than what is to be accomplished. Soldiers who lose their lives in the future will not be dying for any purpose. They will merely be the unfortunate ones who didn’t survive long enough to run out the clock.
All of this brings us to NDP leader Jack Layton. As the two major parties throw dates like “February” and “July” around, Layton is becoming more and more credible. The NDP has always held the position that the troops should be brought home now, with “now” of course varying over the months and years. Layton and the NDP’s reasons are that the troops will be “safer” if they return to Canada; leaving them in Afghanistan will put them in harm’s way and therefore bringing all the troops home so they can be safe from IEDs is actually the best way to support the troops. While no doubt, some N Dippers genuinely feel this way, the real reason is that the NDP are a pacifist party and there hasn’t been a war yet that was worth fighting and dying for. Except possibly in Darfur or another similar trendy conflict, but if Canada ever did send troops in that region, the NDP would be screaming to bring those troops home too. But all of the major political parties agree on one thing now; winning and defeating the enemy is not the main goal. The only important objective is the date by which all the troops will be brought home. Since that is the major objective, Layton’s date of “now” seems more appropriate than some arbitrary date in the future.
The Taliban, who are no doubt sitting in their caves tuned into CBC, are probably having a good laugh at all this. Unfortunately, this will cost the lives of Canadian soldiers who are unable to make it to whatever cutoff date is chosen. Perhaps we should pay more attention to Jack.
