Too Many Canadians Have Short Memories

And I would like to remind them of just one of horrific acts committed because we stuck our heads in the sand.......

Some history can't be forgotten
Estella Cohen 48 min. ago

This coming weekend, Jews around the world will commemorate Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day. We will pause to remember the horrors that swept up 6 million Jewish souls, as well as many Gentiles, between ..

.....and many gave their lives so we had the freedom to express our views.

For better or for worse
Canada has little choice but to be in Afghanistan
April 12, 2007

Real loyalty means opposing the war

Letter, April 10.

Typical of the revisionist history told by Michael Agus, Canada is a nation of peacekeepers only. He seems to have forgotten the proud history of Canada's combat contribution to the Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and now the war on terror.

Further, he blames Prime Minister Stephen Harper for putting our troops in harm's way, when in fact it was the Liberal government of then prime minister Jean Chrétien that decided, in October 2001, that Afghanistan was a more politically expedient place for our troops than Iraq. Chrétien, followed by former prime minister Paul Martin – who committed troops until mid-2005 – put Harper in the unenviable position of having to deliver on the Liberals' rash promises.

Agus feels that we should only be in a combat role "when our country is under threat of war and when the liberties we hold so dear are in peril." Under this isolationist policy, there would be no Vimy Ridge memorial and no Juno Beach memorial, because we would not have been involved in the "armed intervention in the politics of another independent country" to begin with.

How sad it is to the memory of my four great-uncles and three uncles who fought in both world wars to find out that some of their fellow Canadians consider them nothing more than "warmongers."

Bill Kennedy, Toronto

The writer states that Canadians "are peacekeepers, not warmongers." An increasingly large number of Canadians agree. We support the "Third Option," originally formulated by a team from the McMaster University Centre for Peace Studies – a group that has been working on conflicts in Afghanistan since 1999.

Having participated in the overthrow of the government – however flawed it was – of Afghanistan in 2001, Canada has an obligation to contribute to the rebuilding of this shattered country. The "Third Option for Canada" in Afghanistan states that Canada has to change course. We believe that:

1. Canadian troops need to be in Afghanistan, but not fighting on one side of a civil war. A robust military presence engaged in peace-support operations, to reduce violence as a political solution, is needed.

2. There must be talks with everyone, including the Taliban.

3. Development needs to show results (e.g. about 80 per cent of residents in Kandahar do not yet have safe drinking water).

4. Support for the reconciliation process, which is an immense task.

Marion M. Perrin, Una Coghlan, Martha Goodings, Anna Jaikaran, Toronto

My heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Our Canadian soldiers are all heroes because when they joined the army, they knew that someday they might have to go to war and make the ultimate sacrifice. To bring home the troops now or oppose the war would be an affront to those who have died, as the mission is not yet finished.

Today in Afghanistan, little girls are able to attend school, women can choose what to wear and men are free to go beardless. But the Taliban is still a threat. And until it is defeated or its archaic ideology is changed, our soldiers need to be there.

These are the reasons why we fight and Canadians need to support this war. Compared to the situation in Iraq, this is a just war.

Sharaz Habib, Brampton

Too high a price to pay

Letter, April 11.

I take issue with letter writer Farhan Khokhar, who suggests Canadian troops in Afghanistan are on a fool's errand, mired in a needless conflict. No one disagrees with the angle Khokhar takes with regard to the tragic consequences of "international meddling."

Afghanistan was one of the staging grounds in the Cold War era, much like East Germany was until reunification. To blame the West, specifically the United States, for all that is wrong in that country is ridiculous. Tribes and large swaths of the country have historically been ungovernable by any central government. The rise of the Taliban and the sanctuary it provided to terrorism could hardly have been allowed to continue in a post-9/11 world.

What would Khokhar expect the world to do? Aid organizations cannot function in an anarchic climate, which explains why Canadian troops – among other coalition forces – are forced to restore a semblance of order before that country can be rebuilt. Would normalcy and happy times return to Afghanistan if all foreign troops left? The last time the Taliban was left undisturbed by "international meddling," 9/11 happened. I wonder what could happen this time around.

Pradip Francis Rodrigues, Mississauga