Terror on War??

Peter McKay is starting to show his true colours. P-Makkie released a statement earlier today about Canada's new role in Afghanistan. Now I am for lending support to the Americans on their attack on Afghanistan but that's all I am in favour of. Canada had an obligation as a part of NATO to help the US retaliate after September 11, but our new role as the lead in the rebuild/security effort is not something that Canada should be doing. We are a nation of peacekeepers and as such should not be leading an occupation force in another country.

Now, the statement that P-Makkie put out was in regards to opening up the role of Canadian troops in Afghanistan to questioning in Parliament. His response to this is as follows: "We do not want to jeopardize or in any way have a psychological or a real impact on the troops who are in Afghanistan." This is just plain wrong. First of all, parliamentary discussions about the role of the military has no effect in the psychological impact of the troops. Most troops don't even know that there will be any discussion or will know that any discussion would occur. As for the real impact, the only real impact would be withdrawal, or role change of the military personnel serving in Afghanistan. The purpose of these discussions would be to democratically weigh the pros and cons of Canada's increased role in Afghanistan and possible effects of the increase. If those discussions make a psychological impact on the troops, it would be "So it's a democracy we're fighting for???"

My largest problem with the increased role is that it may lead us down a road where we could be targeted by a terrorist attack. The odds aren't that likely, but would increase every day we occupy Afghanistan as the lead force. This war was supposed to increase our national safety and with this increase, has done the opposite effect. Our national safety has been secured not by our military force, but as our role as peacekeepers and peacemakers. To be the one's with the sword, we risk an attack on our country, which we are not prepared for in the least.