Re: Time to bail out of Afghanistan?

Re: WHY ARE WE IMPORTING DEAD CANADIAN SOLDIERS ?

While I sometimes disagree with the contents of Bourque's Newswatch page, I can accept our differing points of view and move on. I've slept on this one overnight before sending. I guess I don't understand those who want to bail out of Afghanistan at all. This headline from his website triggered my response, which is really a response to all Afghanistan-bailers in Canada.

With respect to the above headline, in my opinion it is really out of line, and even offensive, especially to those serving. I wish all of the sanctimonious Afghanistan "pacifists" (CBC, CTV, NDP, most of Quebec, mainstream media, academia, ... all of the usual suspects) would consider the following:

1. Number of military deaths to date in Afghanistan 2002 - 2006: 45. Consider, all of these people signed up voluntarily for the military, a very dangerous job, where you are trained to fight and kill people, destroy things and do whatever it takes to impose your will on an unwilling opponent, while they are committed to doing the same thing to you. If you wanted a nice safe job, you could have become an accountant, or even an editorial writer in Canada (try THAT job in Afghanistan!). Violent death, as unpleasant as it may be to reality-denying spoiled Canadians in their little socialist cocoon here, is a way of every day life in much of the world, and our soldiers know that when they sign on. I spent a weekend at Ft. Knox, Ky with the Essex and Kent Scottish a year ago where they were training for Afghanistan. To a man/woman, they know exactly what they face, and are proud participants. They didn't sign on to hand out soap, rations and blankets to refugees, or to direct traffic and distribute wheat bags for the UN. Social workers, church groups and NGOs can do that.

2. Number of innocent Canadians killed by drunk drivers from 2002 - 2006: approximately 5,600. They were just on their way to work, and wham!

Number of Canadians on average who die of the flu in 4 years: 2,000 - 6,000.

Number of Canadians killed by lightning (a freak accident of nature, and the butt of many jokes as a result) in 4 years on average: 24 - 48.

As sad as any death is, death is a fact of everyday life ... in far greater numbers than our soldiers are experiencing in Afghanistan doing a noble, necessary and worthwhile job. Eventually, you and I will both die ... of something. I think the pacifist-isolationists in Canada need to get over it and look at these numbers for what they really are.

3. Pacifists in rose-coloured glasses wonder (and honestly believe), "Can't we all just get along"? Obvious answer as evidenced by all of recorded history: Absolutely not. As long as there are bad people in the world willing to attack our way of life, kill our people, trying to force their way of life, or personal beliefs on us, or attack our values and our economy, we will always have to be the biggest, baddest mother in the valley, with a willingness to use all means at our disposal with absolute ruthlessness if necessary, to prevent that from happening. Those who haven't learned that lesson over all of history probably deserve to be fried by our enemies in my opinion.

Canada did not gain its fine military reputation by meekly keeping the peace between grumpy neighbours who had already agreed to stop killing each other, a myth perpetuated by political ideologues, those too young to remember and those who should know better. We won it with blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice, bravery and determination in WW I, WW II and in Korea by a willingness to use overwhelming lethal force against our enemies.

4. What if an occupying force, say a strict radical Islamo-fascist state, a ruthless Communist dictator, or some other misguided group had invaded Canada, and was forcing my daughters (and yours) to cover their faces, be treated like sub-humans, denied an education, and beaten or executed at will at the whim of the local warlord who felt you weren't toeing the line as he, personally, felt you should on that particular day, or, like Pol Pot, decided to eliminate all of the "educated elite" simply to satisfy his personal vision of society. Would you not welcome an outside power coming in and driving these idiots back to wherever they came from (or annihilating them?), even if some local infrastructure got trashed along the way, and a few "innocent bystanders" (sympathizers??) got caught in the crossfire? I would give anything for that country to come, and occupy, and free my family and my friends. There is no issue in my life more important to me than personal freedom, and I would make any sacrifice to achieve it if I didn't have it.

I guess the pacifists don't value freedom as much as I do, or they are so selfish that as long as they have it, they could give a rat's behind if the rest of the world doesn't even have a chance to decide for themselves, on penalty of death, whether they agree. I see this as isolationist head-in-the-sand sanctimony at its worst, and I have very little tolerance for it. My grandparents paid dearly for what we have today, and what we take so much for granted. Canadians in 2007 are like spoiled brats who have had everything handed to us on a platter by overly-protective and indulgent parents (and we have).

5. When we and our allies are in Afghanistan chasing Taliban trouble-makers, they aren't free to target me in my house, or my children in their cities. That alone, in and of itself, is enough reason to be in Afghanistan, or in any other God-forsaken place that these freedom-hating radicals choose to call home. I don't care how far away it may seem. I don't care if this battle never ends, and I don't care if there is a steady stream of coffins coming home, even if that means people I know and care about. This is a battle that MUST be fought, and it must be continued without let-up, for as long as it takes.

Cut-and-run pacifists just don't get it. In the real world, Bambi's mother does get killed by wolves, hunters and disease, Old Yeller does die, old ladies do get mugged on the street for crack money, Hitlers and Milosevics unilaterally decide to rid the world of all but their own "preferred" race, and radical idiots think it's God's will that they fly jets loaded with dirty bombs into our centres of commerce. Contrary to western civilization apologists, WE are not the cause of these bad people's actions. THEY are the problem. THEY must be tracked down, and if necessary, ruthlessly eliminated, so that the good people, both here and in their own countries, can get on with their lives. Sitting quietly (and passively) on our hands does not deter bad people from doing really, really bad things.

I hope we never have to face a major attack on our cities, but perhaps that's what it will take to convince this generation of thoroughly spoiled Canadians that we need a tough, well-trained, experienced, well-equipped armed force, willing to use overwhelming lethal force without hesitation if necessary, that can be dispatched anywhere we need them to go on our behalf, and sacrifice at whatever level is required so that the rest of us don't have to do it personally, as we would if the pacifist, cut-and-run crowd had their way.

I have my grandfather's WW I diary sitting right behind me as I write this. His world was light-years away from ours, but only two generations-removed. It's too bad that history has become such a poorly-taught subject. All of the lessons my grandfather had to learn the hard way will certainly have to be learned all over again by another generation who couldn't be bothered to learn the lessons he and his generation left for us to pass along, or don't like the message and choose to ignore it for (misguided) personal beliefs. Appeasement DOES NOT WORK, and never has. At some point (early is far better than later!), you must fight, and you must sacrifice whatever it takes.

With the greatest respect to the 45 families who have paid the ultimate price in this conflict to date (from a father of 4), Canada's sacrifice in Afghanistan has been a pittance in the global and historical scheme of things, and for this reason I find the headline in question, and the attached poll, quite offensive.

Sorry, it needs to be said.