More questions than answers...
...but useful, thought-provoking questions:
I'd suggest that the one point the author is missing is the issue of patience. If we're going to tie one hand behind our back with all the rules and procedures and civilian finger-wagging - and at this stage of the conflict, I don't have a problem with fighting in a more civilized way than our enemies do - then what we need, as a society, is the patience to see the project through at the slower pace we've chosen.
Put another way: you want a quick victory in Afghanistan? Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. You want to win them over one heart and mind at a time? Be prepared for a long and frustrating process that consumes both lives and treasure.
Just know that you can't have it both ways.
War is an obscenity. Civilized societies by definition abhor obscenities. How then can a country like Canada successfully fight a war?
The answer would appear to be: With great difficulty.
...
"People don't seem to realize that the military is a full-time profession and perhaps there's a reason why we do the things we do," said one NATO officer, trapped like the rest of his ilk in a cage where every bar bears the words 'Here's something else you can't do.'
I'd suggest that the one point the author is missing is the issue of patience. If we're going to tie one hand behind our back with all the rules and procedures and civilian finger-wagging - and at this stage of the conflict, I don't have a problem with fighting in a more civilized way than our enemies do - then what we need, as a society, is the patience to see the project through at the slower pace we've chosen.
Put another way: you want a quick victory in Afghanistan? Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. You want to win them over one heart and mind at a time? Be prepared for a long and frustrating process that consumes both lives and treasure.
Just know that you can't have it both ways.
posted by Babbling Brooks at 3:48 p.m.
1 Comments:
Good post Damian, glad to see you contributing again, I feared maybe you forgot how to get the thoughts on the screen.
Good article with sound points until the end, the reference to the Nazis is inappropriate as ethnic cleansing was a government policy, the SS troops and paramilitaries who carried out these murders were implementing official Nazi policy. That does not alleviate their guilt, but to imply that they were rogues gone amok is wrong, all elements of the German army were quite disciplined.
My Lai is also an inappropriate reference, in all the preceding paragraphs the author points out how times and standards of behaviour have changed. Well so too have Canadian soldiers, Graeme Smith's thorough digging in Afghan prisons could find no person that would claim torture or abuse at the hands of Canadians.
Counter-insurgency warfare is long, with the average war running something like 12 years (not lost on me that the Brits only just left N. Ireland this week).
So that makes your average counter-insurgency fight about 11 years, 364 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes longer than the movies we like to watch. However, more similar is the fact that neither comes in black and white any longer.
What I think can be said for certain, and I think this is what Damian is driving at, we have lost the necessary attention span to fight a war. It requires a level of dedication and committment that our revolving parliament just does not have.
Should Canada fail in Afghanistan (and it likley will), the real reason, the reason that all other reasons will flow from is that the most crucial phase of the war was fought with a minority government at the helm. This combined with the fact that partisanship does not allow politicians to work together to do what is right.
The Afghan mission is a noble cause, why are Afghans any less deserving than Darfur? This mission could have easily become something that all Canadians regardless of political stripe could be proud of, all we needed was courage. Courage to look beyond party politics. Courage to pay for something with the blood of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers.
Yes we all abhor war, but we should also abhor turning our backs on those who would be killed without our help.
If I thought the Taliban would negotiate in good faith for anything less that their aberrant ideology I would be happy to do so. But violence is how they have chosen to settle this, therefore, cry havoc, let loose the dogs of managed violence and provincial reconstruction.
Keep posting Damian, without your insight I might not scroll that far down my favourites list.
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