Why the Afgan mission is worthwhile

Further to Terry Glavin, from Rosie DiManno in the Toronto Star:

It is understandable that Canadians, mourning six soldiers killed in two roadside explosions only a week apart, think of Afghanistan as a tragedy almost uniquely our own, these losses most vividly felt and purportedly to little avail.

That is a perspective born of unforgivable ignorance, manipulated by a faction that has no shame in exploiting private grief.

Here is something else that happened in Afghanistan last weekend: A 13-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up in Sangin, Helmand province, killing three British Marines...

The Taliban know that our humanity – which can never be forsaken – weakens us. Our despair over casualties weakens us. Our combat fatigue weakens us.

And they respond by recruiting more children from madrassas, preying particularly on the mentally and physically disabled, tutoring the most vulnerable suicide-proxies – young in age or young in mental capacity – in the splendour of martyrdom. Many of these conscripts clearly do not understand what they're doing.

Dr. Yusef Yadgari, an Afghan pathologist, last year studied the remains of 100 suicide bombers. Eighty per cent had some kind of physical or mental disability, or a major illness such as leprosy.

This is the regime fighting to reclaim power in Kabul while we – Canada – declare two more years and out.

If anyone wants to understand why the war in Afghanistan is worth fighting – without deadlines imposed for reasons of domestic politics – it is vital to look beyond narrow interests such as the sacrifices of an individual nation contributing troops to the NATO mission.

We cannot just "do our part" and then bolt, with nothing resolved, the threat far from neutralized, or perhaps accepting a less risky assignment farther from harm's way.

I can tell you that no Canadian soldier would take any pride in that.