Canada Now Seems Out Of Step On Afghanistan

In the media, there is an unseemly, almost gleeful, quality to much of the coverage — even the coverage of death. It's as if, after years of staying on the sidelines, Canada has finally made it into the big leagues. All of this is reminiscent of America immediately after that country invaded Iraq in 2003. Then, too, there was flag-waving, much optimism and the usual bold statements. ("We don't cut and run. We don't start fights, but we finish them.") But now, almost four years later, the U.S. is finally beginning to come to its senses. Canadian fans of the current Kandahar mission might pay attention to what Americans have discovered about their post 9/11 military adventures in both Iraq and Afghanistan. First, they have learned war is no fun. The U.S. death toll from Iraq continues to mount. And yet, as the U.S. government's own intelligence agencies noted in a recently declassified report, American efforts there have not lessened the threat of terrorism — they have made it worse. To put it another way, by the time America eventually pulls out of Iraq, hundreds of U.S. soldiers and thousands of Iraqis will have died for nothing. http://tinyurl.com/k58eg

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