Afghanistan

The situation in Afghanistan is certainly a vexing one for Canadians, and even more difficult to assess and put into words. However I believe Larry L’s response to the Globe and Mail, sums it up quite succinctly.

Larry L from Waterloo, Canada writes: There is no doubt this situation is both dire and being swept under the carpet. How anyone believes 51,000 troops will save the day over 50,000 is the height of insanity. A few thousand more troops will not solve this. And no NATO nation is going to provide massive numbers of troops. I do not know the answer on how to resolve this. What I do know is where we are now is a stop gap at best and a declining one at that. More lives and more billions are not going to improve the situation. If we have no solution, we need to pull out and take a different approach. That is not a cut-and-run answer. That is not a typical liberal cowardice ideal. It is just reality. I don't want another dead soldier whose life is tossed away in some fruitless venture. It would be great to think we are stemming the tide, making a real difference. The reality is that every area we secure gets turned back as soon as we move to the next area. The poppy industry is the people's best hope for survival. Who can blame them? We have not inspired the people to stand and fight with us. They take what we give, gratefully, and when we go, they still have to live, feed their families. And so the poppies grow. Wouldn't you do what you had to in order to feed your family? It's sad that we live in a world where the truth is the enemy. It's sad that politicians on all sides feel the need to either lie, cover up or manipulate the truth. The question I'm always asking myself is this: If what we are trying to do in Afghanistan is working so well, if how things are organized is so spectacular, if the reason we are doing what we're doing is so right, then why do you have to do whatever you can to keep the information from us? Does no one understand that the truth is out there? It doesn't take long to find real information from real sources in real places. And it doesn't take long to unravel the web of disinformation. The question why so many accept what is fed to us.