Swing that big stick, Taylor...

Friend and fellow contributor Chris Taylor chews Jean Chretien a well-deserved new one over at his place, as a result of Chretien's irresponsible and self-serving musings on the Afghan file:

Translation: If I were still PM, we would have shirked the heavy lifting of combat duty and reconstruction in Taliban-contested provinces for the safety of crossing-guard duties in NATO-controlled areas.

Let's get one thing straight, M. Chrétien. The people with blood on their hands are the Taliban fighters struggling to bring back 7th-century despotism to a recently-freed populace. Paul Martin may (or may not) have dithered too long, but the mission is nonetheless an honorable one. One that we should be proud to take up—because it is difficult, and because few nations can muster the will, the men and matériel to make it reality.

Chris probably thought this was too political a piece for The Torch. Normally, I might agree. If Chretien wasn't trying desperately to run to the front of a mob slouching away from a mission he himself started, I'd probably be inclined to let it slide here. But if he, in typically crass fashion, wants to use a grave and noble mission as nothing more than a convenient truncheon with which to club an old political foe, then I say to hell with him.