R2P should include Afghans

If the vaunted Responsibility to Protect starts anywhere, it starts here:

"I was coming from my uncle's shop where I work. On the way there was an IED, the Taliban put it someplace beside the road so there was an explosion," she said.

"I was just walking. Their (the Taliban's) plan - their target - was the ANP (Afghan National Police). We were walking on the road, there was a (Ford) Ranger - a police pickup - and then there was an explosion."

...

"I am a tough girl that's why I am laughing," she smiled.

Her nurse since day one, Lt. Sophie Pelletier, stood watching, tears rolling down her face.

"I've grown attached to her and I'm glad she's here. Her surgeon is my new hero," Pelletier said tearfully.

"I hope she learns English and she can become a translator and independent," she added.

The Afghan interpreter put things into perspective very quickly at that point.

"Her future will be very bad in Afghanistan. This is not Canada or America. Life is not good for her in the future," he explained.

"She's got an amputated leg and in Afghanistan, a girl who has an amputated leg no one is going to marry her. This will be her life."

"Her parents will take care of her. It depends on her destiny. Maybe she will find a boy who will want to marry her but I don't think so," he said.

BZ to all those fine Canadians who are working to make life better for people like young Marzyca - those who protect her by being badder than the bad guys, those who build her schools and wells and irrigation canals, and those who save her life in a Canadian-run hospital.

But today, the biggest BZ goes to those who heal:

Back in her room Marzyca seemed oblivious to all of the attention and was talking about the care she was receiving.

"This is the first time I have been in a hospital," she said and then pointed at Pelletier.

"She has been taking good care of me. She's the best in this hospital."

One team, one fight.