Canada in Afghanistan

In todays Canoe:

July 11, 2007

Listen to vets, not Layton
By EARL McRAE

Should Canada pull its soldiers out of Afghanistan because some are being killed?

That's the question I asked several veterans of World War II at the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre. Not one of them said yes, not one had a good word to say about NDP leader Jack Layton, who the other day bleated once again that Stephen Harper should immediately get our soldiers to hell back to Canada -- thus abandoning the Afghan government and people -- because six more Canadian soldiers were killed and that, tsk, tsk, is just terrible.

It matters not to Layton that our soldiers do not want to come home, that they support the mission, that they believe progress is being made, that the families of the dead are not demanding their comrades come home, that they speak supportively of their dead loved ones.

They get it, Layton doesn't.

Jack Layton, leader of a party that supposedly anguishes for the oppressed and exploited in society, but when it comes to Canada being one of the NATO countries fighting -- at the request of the Afghan government, and at the gratitude of the Afghan people -- the oppressing and exploiting rogue Taliban, Layton's precious social philosophy goes flying out his window.

Layton's acting as if it's Canadian civilian tourists being murdered. No Layton, they're soldiers. Soldiers in combat. Soldiers who know in combat their job is to kill or be killed. Soldiers who, with their NATO allies, have killed more Taliban than have killed them. Soldiers, fine Canadian soldiers, who, despite the deaths, truck on willingly and bravely in the name of freedom and democracy, in the face of possible death, for fellow humans on this planet.

Does Jack Layton, for all his alleged brains, know that for the first three years of the six-year World War II, the allies were losing the war to the Germans? Does Mr. Jack Layton -- NDP weeping heart -- know that his grandfather, Gilbert Layton, minister-without-portfolio in the Quebec government of Premier Maurice Duplessis in World War II, resigned, yes, resigned, over its opposition to conscription?

But not all soldiers disagree with Canadian political leader Jack Layton's howling to bring the soldiers home. Nope. The Taliban love it. If Layton's views reflect the soft Canadian underbelly, goes Taliban thinking, let's keep pouring it on. Layton says he supports our troops. No he doesn't.

Several weeks ago on Gerry Cammy's CFRA talk show I asked Layton why he doesn't go to Afghanistan himself to meet the troops, assess the situation first hand. "You might come back with different views," I told him. "Do you not think you'd benefit from such a trip?"

He said that yes, he would, and that he had a request in to the government to go, but hadn't heard back. Not that he was making it a priority, he with all the answers and outrage. Send him over Stephen Harper, let us see him do what he's calling for: Negotiate peace with the Taliban in the best interests of the democracy-desirous Afghans. Let him do it to the violin strains of Beautiful Dreamer.

Jack Tarzwell, 86, RCAF, Flight Lieutenant, navigator in Dakotas, three years combat overseas: "No one likes to see deaths, but it happens. No, we should not pull out. That's not soldiering, that's cowardice. Wars can be long and frustrating. Challenging. Do it, dammit. Just do it. It's the name of the game."

Al Erickson, 83, RCAF, Flying Officer, anti-submarine, air-and-sea rescue, 18 months combat in Malta: "The NDP and Liberals calling for a pullout, it's a lot of humbug. We're there for a mission. You've got to do what you've got to do. You can't say 'come home' every time a soldier is killed."

Erickson's right arm is badly scarred. "I was in the gun turret at the back of the plane. I got hit by machine-gun bullets. But our plane survived. I shot the German plane down."

Bucky Stanton, 85, British Army, Devonshire Regiment, Corporal, combat in Italy, wounded in action, two buddies killed, emigrated to Canada in 1951, visiting a pal at Perley And Rideau: "We're slowly winning this war, winning the battles and the hearts and minds, but you'd never know it from the left-wing media and politicians. This bird Layton should just shut up. He's humiliating the Canadian soldiers and our great country on the world stage."