What kind of Canadian do you prefer?

Differing views on Afghanistan and the Canadian Forces:

1) A retired member, in a letter to the Ottawa Citizen, decries the government's apparent change of course on Afghanistan:

Re: Parliamentary consensus required to extend mission, Harper says, June 23.

With one incomprehensible and unconscionable action, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has achieved three things: surrendered to the Taliban; increased the threat to our troops serving in Afghanistan; and forfeited management of national foreign and defence policy to Stephane Dion.

By giving the opposition the authority to determine when and under what conditions we will withdraw our troops, he has given them control of the agenda. By so doing, the day after three more of our soldiers were killed, he has advised the Taliban to kill as many more of our troops as possible to make sure Canadians don't forget Mr. Harper's folly, and to speed up our departure. He has invited the Taliban to target Canadians.

Thirdly, Mr. Harper has told them that all they have to do is wait another 19 months and Canada will withdraw from the field of battle, white flag raised, leaving NATO solidarity shattered. The only possibly positive thing he has achieved is to ensure that the Taliban won't attack Canadians on our own soil -- until February 2009.

Finally, with what possible logic did he do this on the last day of the current Parliamentary session?

I am a retired member of the Canadian Forces, having served slightly more than 39 years. Frankly, I now am left to wonder if it wasn't all wasted. This is the message the prime minister may well have sent to all of us retired and still serving.

Denis R. Boyle,

Ottawa

2) Arch peacenik Steve Staples, at the end of an opinion piece, reveals his true agenda: a Canadian military that does not fight:

In a broader context, Prime Minister Harper's remarks last week may signal that the current military buildup and transformation of the Canadian Forces from peacekeepers to war fighters has reached its zenith.

The war has been used to justify an increase of billions in military sending, a reorganization of the forces to better fight the U.S.-led War on Terror, and more than $20-billion in planned equipment purchases.

The Liberals and NDP have already called for a freeze on new major military contracts until the federal auditor general reports on the government's non-competitive procurement process in the fall. With the war all but over, what support will there be for billions of dollars worth of tanks and helicopters [we had Chinook helicopters in the past but sold them to the Dutch as the CF were downsized by the Mulroney government] intended for Afghanistan?

The Canadian public has never been comfortable with the U.S.-friendly shifts in Canadian foreign policy that Afghanistan has been used to defend, and now they will want our government to be doing what Canadians have always supported -- participating in United Nations peacekeeping missions and paying more attention to diplomacy and aid. That's probably the best news of all.

Steven Staples is director of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs and a board member of the Canadian Pugwash Group.

I certainly know which kind of Canadian I prefer.

Update: Here's a post very much to the point at Milnet.ca:

Lead, Please, Prime Minister