Cut and run? Not yet... but it isn't looking good

Canada's involvement in Afghanistan is once more coming under scrutiny as more of our soldiers are coming home in flag-draped coffins.

My first instinct is to recall a post I wrote in April (Really? Soldiers die in war zones? But... really?). In it, I argued that media coverage of the inevitable casualties from the Afghan front would unrealistically portray the tragedy in terms of a national disaster.

This has happened. One example of the latest coverage can be found here. Just last week, the Vancouver Metro newspaper ran a front-page headline, "Why are we over there?" Every randomly(?)-surveyed Vancouverite answered that our soldiers should not even be in that part of the world.

So far, less than thirty Canadians have lost their lives trying to stabilize a part of the world that very recently hosted one of the worst regimes in modern history. The world wants to prevent their return.

Soldiers dying is a terrible thing, but I never thought of Canada as a country that is willing to abandon its fight after the military equivalent of a bloody nose.

But even my robust support of this mission is fading - not because of the casualties, but because of the current Afghan regime is starting to look too much like the old one.

The last 200 South Koreans were booted out of Afghanistan today, after 1,000 had already left. They were ordered to leave over suspicions that they were preaching Christianity to the locals - a crime punishable by death. Other incidents like this have already been widely reported in the mass media. The trend is unmistakable.

Afghanistan is a Muslim nation. No efforts on the part of foreign missionaries, North American pop culture stars or even military intervention on the scale of the old Soviet occupation is going to change that - ever.

All the latest Afghan government edicts are doing is alienating and offending the mostly Western governments providing the combat boots on the ground necessary to help his nation.

Canadians shouldn't be dying for a regime that stomps on human freedom and encourages hatred of foreigners. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay should be asking some very direct questions of his counterpart in Kabul. If he doesn't get the right answers, then we should get out.

Getting into Afghanistan to fight the Taliban in the first place was the right thing. Staying to help the country get on its feet was an ethical decision as well. But at some point, Afghanistan will have to stand on its own. It might be sooner than anyone though.

tags: Afghanistan peacekeeping, fear of the other, bad strategy