I’ve done some googling around and I can’t find any clear cite on the morale issue, but as I recall, it wasn’t because of the number of Canadians killed, but the nearly unrelenting state of combat that they are in. Perfectly understandable, IMHO, getting shot at, having RPGs fired at you, etc., etc., etc., on a daily basis, is bound to wear down even the finest soldiers (which Canadians most certainly are), after a while.
AFAICT, nobody has adequate troop levels in Afghanistan, and its starting wear on everybody, except the Taliban.
I didn’t want to sound like a cheeky armchair general, but I agree with you. It would seem strange that a modern professional army couldn’t take 40 deaths on the chin (considering a few soldiers die on training each year) but the daily toll of getting shot at would be wearisome no doubt.
It’s like deja vu all over again. I’m sure, once the inquiry is over, we’ll be told that the pilots mistook the flash of cigarette lighters for SAM launches or some other such shit.
I remember General Hillier on CBC last year talking about how this year we were going to have lots of casulties. He wanted to prepare the public for it (and this was before the conservatives were elected). Cyprus-style peacekeeping is dead, we have to wake up to the new realities of the world.
The only morale problem I’ve ever heard for the Canadian army is accounts from a killed soldier’s girlfriend that he had lost faith in the mission. But it sounds like the guy never really wanted to be a soldier in the first place. By and large, morale is pretty high. The men and women knew what they were getting into, even if the public didn’t.
It’s really starting to distress me though, that this mission could really end badly when there was so much promise at the beginning, because not all NATO members are committing the troops and resources they promised.
It’s not just NATO. Nearly every country on the planet promised money to help rebuild Afghanistan after the war, and apparently that money hasn’t shown up.
True, but if we could give them electricity, running water, decent roads, etc., etc., etc., they’d be less inclined to believe al-Qaeda when they showed up and said that if they helped them kick the infidels out things would be better.
It was supposed to turn into a peacekeeping mission, and in fact was even sold as being so for a significant period during which Afghanistan was supposedly the successful democratic beacon to the world.
If you thought the entire time throughout until now that you were fighting a war, then that itself is a sign that something went seriously wrong with the mission.
No doubt. I certainly wish the war had not lasted four years. Had some of the major players not run off to start another one, it might not have.
But this was started as a war. Nobody said in 2002 it was a peacekeeping mission. The government has been honest about this; they’ve never denied that we were going to fight a war, so when other Canadians start up some bullshit about how it was just supposed to be a “peacekeeping mission” I’m gonna call them on it.
