This is a reply to the mission statement column in the Abbotsford Post of August 27 which has been reproduced for purposes of clarity below my commentary.

The Glaring Omission in Mr. Taylor’s August 28, 2007 mission statement is any Afghanistan mission statement demonstrating that this is a War worth fighting and not merely “a war of politicians and politics”.

The Valium of self-delusion Mr. Taylor speaks of would appear to have been administered to himself.

Afghanistan was not who attacked the US on 9/11 but terrorists. Being in Afghanistan, helping the US to pursue its anti-drug policies in wiping out the opium crop (from which heroin is made) upon which Afghani farmers depend for cash to live on and killing innocent civilians, does nothing but create enemies and more terrorists.

Fools rush in where wise men know better than to tread.

If we are unwilling to treat our addicts and help them into recovery, insisting on pursuing a foolish policy of ignoring capitalism and market forces via reducing demand through addiction recovery, there is no need to compound the foolishness by creating enemies – the farmers will be happy to sell their crop to us and don’t care if we then destroy it.

Wise men know that a terrorist in Afghanistan is not a threat to us in Canada – until someone bankrolls the terrorists thus allowing them to travel from Afghanistan to Canada, hide within Canada preparing their strike and providing the materials needed to commit terrorist atrocities.

Wise men know you go for those who bankroll the terrorists.

But Saudi Arabia is a friend of the Bush family and the US government; is extremely wealthy and generous to their friends; and controls the Saudi oil fields. Afghanistan is poor, unable to buy friends and influence.

He is correct on one point and both right and wrong on another. He is correct that the troops deserve our support and while correct that a firm withdrawal date should not be set, his implication that we should condemn our troops to an indefinite stay, suffering bleeding to death from a thousand cuts is criminal and flawed.

The bitter pill our troops must swallow is that they were betrayed by their government. Worse is the fact that this betrayal was perpetrated on them by a minority Government – the minority Conservative government who, while able to send our forces into harms way, had no ethical or moral right to commit out dedicated forces personnel to shedding their blood and lives in a purposeless and unjust war.

As the words of John Stewart Mills quoted by Mr. Taylor make clear – “war is an ugly thing” and if we are to be “willing to fight” and ask our forces to shed their blood, it must be a “moral” cause “more important than personal safety” and “worth war”.

The Balkan’s ethnic cleansing was. The Sudan with its genocide would be. Foolishness, political opportunism and cronyism are not.

A War of Politics and Politicians is not a war worth our nation’s treasure and blood, it is an ugly thing we should never have been involved in and that ethics demand we disengage from.

It’s a war, politicians

So Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and Liberal Party of Canada leader Stéphane Dion are threatening to bring down the federal government and provoke a general election if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t give a firmdate for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan.

I wonder who they asked about that?

Not the members of Mission’s adopted regiment, the Royal Westminsters (the ‘Westies’) I bet. Anybody who has met these young men and women at events in Mission or at Master Corporal Bason’s funeral has heard a very different story. Many of these fine young people have signed up for the task force TF1-08 which means they, as militia citizen soldiers, have volunteered for service in Afghanistan.

Our young soldiers understand something these two self-interested political parties do not.This is not totally surprising since the Liberals cold bloodedly gutted our armed forces and the Bloc represents that portion of Quebec society that has always regarded defending our country as a purely Anglo task.

What our soldiers understand is that this is a war. It is not a peacekeeping operation or a police action, it is a war. On 9/11 our closest ally was attacked. Anybody who believes that attack was just on the U.S. and that Canada is safe is not just wearing rose-coloured spectacles but is also suffering an overdose of the Valium of self-delusion.

Imagine, as a soldier, being told, “your country expects you to lay your life on the line for a set of ideals. But after 2009 these ideals will cease to be important and everbody can come home.”

It is a novel concept – go to war but, first, declare an end date. Wars aren’t like that, they last until you win or lose.Thank Heaven for the young soldiers of the Westies and those and of the legendary Van Doos currently in Afghanistan.

They are ready to defend our country and they also believe that in bringing freedom to a people previously mired in a totalitarian, despotic and cruel medieval theocracy they are serving Canadian ideals. The Canadian Armed Forces are, sadly, used to being over tasked and ill-equipped. They can accept that they are being sent to war in secondhand German tanks, which are replacing a previous generation of secondhand German tanks, or in armoured vehicles whose armour is about as effective as that on an ice-cream truck. But, it is a much more bitter pill to swallow to know that they are effectively being betrayed by their own government.

Yes, war is terrible and the death of any young soldier is an enormous human tragedy. But it is worth remembering that the casualty rate we are suffering in Afghanistan is lower than the murder rate in Toronto.

So when the Westies are next in Mission – after the parade Nov. 11 in the Legion – consider dropping by and shaking their hands. Hopefully that will convince them that those for whom they are fight worth fighting for.

Above all, remember the words of John Stuart Mill: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”