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/ Opinion / Editorial /

Why did 162 Canadians die?

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What’s the value of 162 lives?

That’s the number of Canadian husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters who have died in Afghanistan since the government took us into that conflict in 2002.

It was the first real step that Canada took to change our foreign role from that of peacekeeper to aggressive American ally. Now that we’re finally getting out of a country where we had no business to begin with, Canadians do have to wonder what, if any, benefits will be gained by our presence there.

And what lessons should we learn from the 10 years and 162 deaths?

The U.S. went into Afghanistan following the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001, determined to find and kill Osama Bin Laden, which they finally did. But for the U.S. to say it achieved its goals, which included bringing democracy to the country, is a gross exaggeration.

Canadian and U.S. officials had barely finished announcing the changing role our troops would play in Afghanistan — from aggressively fighting the Taliban and trying to install democracy to trainers of the new Afghan military — and already the violence has intensified.

Coinciding with the withdrawal and changing roles of foreign troops is the increase in Taliban attacks. In the last week alone there were at least nine deaths as a result of suicide bombers or Afghan resurgents opening fire on foreign troops.

A NATO report this week says “despite the presence of 100,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan remains at its worst levels since the Taliban was toppled in late 2001.”

So what hope is there that Afghanistan will do anything other than return to its historical ways, ruled violently by the Taliban?

And so we ask again: What was the point of it all?

Why were the lives of 162 Canadian mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, sisters and brothers sacrificed?

And remember, that’s only the fatalities. Who knows how many other military personnel returned to Canada minus limbs or who are now suffering from post-war depression or other symptoms.

Yet 162 is a minuscule number in comparison to the 1,854 Americans, 8,000 Afghan civilians, 5,500 Afghan police and soldiers and thousands of Taliban who have died in the conflict.

So what was gained from all the deaths?

“The lessons from Afghanistan I don’t think have been learned yet,” St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber told the Gazette’s editorial board this week. “But many opponents of nation-building would suggest you can’t impose your western democratic values.”

It’s true. Democracy does not easily co-exist in many Muslin countries.

According to Freedom House, a non-profit organization that tracks democracy worldwide, “the last 30 years have seen a trend diametrically opposite to the global trend toward political liberalization” in Muslim nations.

It’s unlikely that life will change much in the country, as it usually doesn’t change whenever a dictatorial government is overthrown. History has shown us that in most cases one dictator is replaced by another, or a dictatorial government is replaced by a hard-core military one. Either way the people lose.

So the question hangs there: Why did 162 Canadians die?