Where has fortitude gone?

The First and Second World Wars and Korea saw death arrive on doorsteps across Canada in the form of a telegram. Long casualty lists were published in local newspapers such as the Border City Star after the Dieppe Raid virtually wiped out the Essex Scottish Regiment. Today the news arrives almost instantaneously through television and the internet. (Note: any announcements are embargoed to the press until the families have been appropriately notified). Ramp ceremonies are broadcast from Afghanistan and CFB Trenton.

Windsor native Cpl. Andrew Grenon lost his life in the service of Canada recently in Afghanistan. It was sad to see, mixed in amongst the messages of condolence and support posted online at the Windsor Star, the call for us to get out of Afghanistan and stop wasting Canadian lives.

A local opinion columnist, Gord Henderson, who I must admit I disagree with nine times out of ten, has penned a very timely and apt piece on this very question.

Reminder of war here

It's a damn shame so many here in Canada lack the fortitude being demonstrated by our soldiers in Afghanistan.

Grenon was a proud member of a regiment that spearheaded the capture of Vimy Ridge in the First World War, smashed through the Hitler and Gothic lines in the Second World War and stood fast on a hilltop at Kapyong in South Korea while under frenzied assault from thousands of Communist Chinese infantrymen.

This country, with only a quarter of its current population, lost 3,598 fine young men in four days at Vimy Ridge in 1917. The grief across this land must have been indescribable. But there was also pride and determination in abundance. They saw it through.

Were Canadian civilians made of better stuff then? Are we worthy of courageous young men like Andrew Grenon? I would hate to think otherwise.