Is Afghanistan Canada's "moral moment"?

A Canadian soldier there thinks so (in an eloquent e-mail to Damian Brooks of The Torch). I agree with him; I also doubt our opposition politicians and most of our pundits have the brains or the hearts to realize it. And I fear for the moral courage of Canadians.

...Judith Timson examines the "moral moment", which she describes as "that instant when we must settle scores with our conscience - when we are called upon to make a decision that affects others and ourselves, to save lives, or reveal how lives could have been saved."

[...]

...Timson also points out which she calls a more "cynical notion: that we spend most of our lives leading up to a moment in which we are to be morally tested - and the rest of our lives explaining why that wasn't the moment." Mr. Brooks, what if Canada's mission in Afghanistan is a collective national moral moment? What if our current elected parliament is being tested, as elected officials ought to be, on our behalf in our greatest national moral moment since the Korean War? What if the people of Afghanistan really need our help? Why do so many Canadians feel compelled to explain that this isn't "the moment", citing far-flung arguments about gas and oil and George Bush. How can their paranoid vision scrutinize such gossamer threads while ignoring the crushing despair of the Afghan people and the brutal curriculum vitae of the Taliban?

I think I am cynical enough to agree with Timson about how we spend most of our lives, and maybe I am cynical enough to agree with the Toronto Star's Rosie DiManno when she so harshly indicts us "Still, and always, it's all about us. Don't pretend that we give a damn about them." I urge all Canadians, regardless of political affiliation, to consider that perhaps President Karzai was telling the truth when he said "Your military presence is a must because without that, we would not be able to keep our country together, and your reconstruction activity is necessary because it gives us economic opportunity and employment and a better quality of life."

All this is not to say that examination of the mission should not occur. I am all for making the necessary course corrections to ensure that the mission is on the best track to success. But a full 180-degree turn taken without the support of the legitimate Government of Afghanistan and the international community is not altering course, it is failure...

Compare the combat fatalities in Afstan with this--yet far too many people misdirect their outrage:

Medical errors in Canadian hospitals lead to 9000 - 24,000 deaths every year

Mark C.

Posted by markc at May 24, 2007 09:49 PM