Monday, July 10, 2006

21 years old

Yesterday, Canadian soldier Corporal Anthony Boneca was killed in Afghanistan. It was his second tour of duty, the first one being more of a peacekeeping mission. According to his family, he'd recently expressed disillusionment with the mission in Afghanistan, saying "It's not like you see on TV. I'd never do it again." His uncle said he didn't know what Boneca saw or what he did, but that he was definitely disillusioned with the mission and thought Canada shouldn't be there.

He was right. Canada is a nation of peacekeepers; we shouldn't be in Afghanistan for the express purpose of "killing people", as General Rick Hillier stated. We've always had worldwide respect for our peaceful nature; we risk losing that by amping up the aggression of our foreign policy. It's a huge mistake: when even soldiers are questioning the mission, you have to wonder if we're doing the right thing. Loss of young Canadians in combat and loss of our worldwide reputation as peacekeepers seems like an exceptionally high price to pay for 'Steve' to be buddies with George W.