The Toronto Star supports the troops...and the mission!

Yesterday it reprinted a positive editorial from the Winnipeg Free Press:

Aid won't work without arms

Today it prints its own view; Layton and the Liberals (and Mayor Miller) must be in shock. Good on the, gasp, Star!

Giving Afghans a chance
...
Canada has provided 2,500 troops and a $1.2 billion aid package to help the Afghan people emerge from decades of foreign occupation, civil war and, in recent years, Taliban rule. Every extra day that President Hamid Karzai's democratically elected government is given to affirm its authority is a day of hope for the Afghan people.

Canadian troops are striving to buy Afghan democrats time by preventing extremists, who want to topple the government and turn Afghanistan back into a launch pad for terror attacks, from regrouping.

Despite Afghanistan's desperate poverty and social chaos, the Afghan army and police are slowly growing stronger. Girls go to school in many areas. Communities rebuild roads, medical clinics, water systems, hydro lines and other basics. Kids can fly kites again. While the Taliban will not fade completely from the scene, their insurgency has been disrupted. They have been reduced to intimidating small villages, planting bombs and making videos in the desert.

Here at home, pressure may be building to pull Canadian forces from Kandahar when their current combat stint draws to a close late next year. At that time, Parliament will be right to debate thoroughly whether to extend the mission beyond early 2009, taking into consideration such issues as whether Karzai is making sufficient progress and whether Canadian aid is getting to those who need it most.

But on the dusty back roads, Canada's troops can take pride in knowing that the nation honours them for serving in a decent cause, giving Afghans a chance to build a better future.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen prints a supposed news story that appears mainly aimed to undermine support for the mission, and naturally quotes Steve Staples (near the end):

Taking a measuring of war

As more young soldiers come home from Afghanistan in flag-draped caskets, Chris Cobb asks, at what point do Canadians say enough is enough?

Enough of Mr Cobb, I say.