Why We Can't Quit

I am not going to pretend the conflict in Afghanistan is fraught with glory or the deaths of ninety-seven men are marginal. Any loss is keenly felt in the world. There is nothing glorious about war, only about the men who serve in it. To leave Afghanistan now would be disastrous politically and nationally. As a country, we promised to help the Afghan people. Our presence makes it possible for girls to be educated, for women to have some form of dignity and for a fledgling democracy to take flight. Maybe Afghanistan will never be like North America or Europe but that does not excuse our moral abandonment.

Consider:

-the War of 1812 was hard fought when the numbers weren’t in our favour. Upper Canada- now the province of Ontario- had a population of only 80,000 people whereas the US had a population of 7.5 million.

-the bloodbath that was World War One cost Canada 60,000 lives. Initially enthusiastic about the war, Canadians enlisted in droves. As the lists of maimed and dead grew higher, support for the war waned. A conscription crisis ensued and Prime Minster Borden needed pro-conscription support. Women (only WASPs with sons overseas) could vote for the first time in a vain attempt to save their sons.

-more than 6,000 Canadian soldiers were wounded or killed after the chlorine gas attacks at Ypres on April 24^th, 1915.

-only 68 Newfoundlanders out of 790 survived the Battle of the Somme (Newfoundland was not yet a province of Canada. It would become so in 1949).

-Vimy cost Canada 3,600 men. Canada captured more ground and guns but lost thousands of men.

-Passchendaele (there is now a movie which bears this name) cost 15, 654 soldiers out of a predicted 16,000. It was considered a victory.

-on September 10^th, 1939, Canada, for the first time in its history, declared war on its own. It was already offering support to Great Britain (American black airmen, who could not train their own country, trained in Canada. Their efforts helped end the war). 1,200 Canadians died in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Japanese killed 550 men after the fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. 6,000 were killed in Italy. It was the disastrous raid at Dieppe that cost Canada 3,300 casualties, 900 of whom died. Had Canada pulled out they would never have achieved their objectives during a more successful amphibious landing- D-Day- and destroyed the Nazi war machine.

-though the war is technically not over, the Korean War resulted in the deaths of 516 Canadians (I have seen their names in the War Memorial in Seoul). I had the great pleasure of meeting a Canadian Korean war vet at the Canadian War Museum a few years ago. This down-to-earth fellow could not believe the place South Korea had become thanks to him and others who gave their lives.

We have made our place in history for the benefit of others. Nothing ends perfectly. I don’t think we will ever have that. That does not mean we surrender. The men who gave their lives deserve more than that. We must promise it to them.