Afstan: Exhibit at Canadian War Museum

This sounds like something special:

You may leave in tears, which just might bring smiles to the brass at the Defence Department.

Afghanistan: A Glimpse of War is the most powerful exhibition mounted at the Canadian War Museum in many a year. It opens today for an 11-month run.

The exhibition is definitely pro-soldier. You instantly bond with the Canadian troops whose lives and deaths are pictured in this show. You feel you know these men and women; your kids probably play with their kids. In that sense, the exhibition is a triumph for the museum and for the military.

However, A Glimpse of War is not propaganda. It's not even political. It does not try to convince you of the rightness or wrongness of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan.

It's simply, as the title suggests, "a glimpse of war." And war, as we all know, is hell...

...the exhibition deals with the Afghan adventure from the viewpoint of individual Canadian soldiers who have suddenly shed their role as peacekeepers and found themselves in a place as alien as Mars, handed a gun and told to shoot the bad guys.

Sometimes the Canadians are shot instead, get their legs blown off by landmines or are slaughtered by suicide bombers. There have been 44 Canadian soldiers killed so far in Afghanistan.

A giant screen at the exit of the exhibition flashes pictures of these 44. Some pose proudly in their uniforms. Some are relaxed, hugging wives or playing with their children. They all look so familiar. Surely, in happier days, you bumped into some of them Saturday mornings in the aisles of Canadian Tire or Loblaws. We cannot help but feel their absence.

The backbone of the exhibition is a remarkable series of photographs and video footage shot in Afghanistan by two seasoned war correspondents, Stephen Thorne of The Canadian Press and independent filmmaker Garth Pritchard [emphasis added--and see what Mr Pritchard thinks of the CBC]. They have truly captured the souls of our soldiers far better than any military PR campaign ever could have...

The most unforgettable photograph in the show is of a life-sized, big, tough soldier holding his beret to his heart and crying uncontrollably. Two of his buddies have just been killed. It is impossible not to share his pain and weep beside him...