A Soldier’s Message to Jack Layton

September 6, 2006

On May 17th, MPs voted to extend the Canadian Forces mission to Afghanistan into 2009. The debate was heated at times, a reflection of how this issue has divided Canadians.

War is like that, especially for a nation that has thankfully experienced relatively few military casualties since the end of World War II. Plus, the wars of this century, with worldwide terrorist cells and suicide bombers, are nothing like the wars we knew in the last century.

During the debate, military officials and our government were completely forthright in predicting this mission would require combat incurring Canadian casualties. This isn’t a peacekeeping mission. There is not yet any peace in Afghanistan to maintain.

It was supposed to be a free vote. However, NDP leader Jack Layton ordered his MPs to reject Canada’s role in Afghanistan. Now, just over three months later, Mr. Layton is calling for yet another vote on the same mission.

And once we’ve hauled our soldiers home, Mr. Layton then wants Canada to help negotiate with the Taliban. He wants to sit down with the very same terrorist group that killed and maimed our Canadian soldiers. Those who intend to oust their democratically-elected Afghan government, murder innocent civilians, including those who support educating girls, and destroy the infrastructure the Afghan people are desperately trying to re-build.

Mr. Layton claims this position supports our troops. As one well-known national columnist put it, “In a pig’s ear!”

Canada’s soldiers are doing what they are trained to do. In the early days of the mission there were more opportunities to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people by sitting down with elders daily and interacting with Afghan children. It worked. So much so that the Taliban intensified their attacks on our soldiers and Afghans who support them. We cannot abandon the Afghan people now!

I understand many Canadians are torn about this mission as the deaths and injuries mount. And I admit that I, along with my colleagues, must do a better job of communicating its purpose.

Perhaps the best description came from a Canadian soldier, stationed at CFB Petawawa, who wrote anonymously and without authorization to an Ottawa newspaper this week. He will soon follow his friends, the five Canadian soldiers who died over the Labour Day weekend, to Afghanistan.

The letter-writing soldier stated that contrary to what some Canadians believe, our troops are not in Afghanistan as peacekeepers but as warriors who joined to fight for our way of life.

He explained that though peace is an ideal way to achieve our goals, the enemy does not always understand the language of peace. He wrote that there are people throughout the world who do not have the luxury we enjoy of living our lives in relative comfort. People who can’t do the same things we do lest they be beaten to death by those who hate their way of life. “Our job,” the soldier reminded, “is to stop these tragedies.”

I sure hope Mr. Layton read that letter. No one could have said it better.