The price versus the prize

Soldiers I've spoken with are not of one mind on this issue, and I wouldn't pretend to speak for them in such a situation. But many of them have expressed to me their frustration that the media and public pay attention only to the costs of the mission, and not to what Canadian blood and treasure is accomplishing in Kandahar.

BGen Vance says what I believe should have been said from the first casualty, far more emphatically than it has been:

"Please do not think of this as a failure on the part of any person or of the mission itself," Vance said in a statement at Kandahar Airfield.

"Success in war is costly. We are determined to succeed so that Afghan lives improve, but the insurgents are equally determined to challenge and prevent Afghanistan from flourishing as the nation it so wants to be. Remember, the deaths of these superb Canadians occurred as Canadian Forces were bringing safety to those in peril. Today, they succeeded." [Babbler's emphasis]

They did indeed.