Afstan update: Soldiers and combat

Scott Taylor, of Esprit de Corps magazine, spoke in an interview March 29 on TVO's Studio 2: Soldiers Killed first as a soldier and second as a political analyst.

He said as a soldier that our troops in Afstan would much rather engage in fire-fights--in which they kill many more of the enemy than they kill us--than travel in vehicles waiting for an IED to go off and perhaps kill them. In fact the successful fire-fight, even with fatal casualties, boosts morale.

I agree with what he said as a political analyst when he spoke of the difficulty of creating a unified, democratic Afstan. But that difficulty does not negate the effort to work for the creation of a non-Islamist Afstan (such a country existed in 1976; I was there) that does not harbour jihadis whose aim is to kill us.

The success of the current international mission is uncertain to a large extent as the will supporting the mission is weak. Most Afghans do not want the Taliban (or al Qaeda) back. It was Afghans--with air support--who deposed them in the first place.

Posted by markc at March 29, 2006 10:00 PM