Editorial - Regarding “Tories take issue with Rota’s remarks”.
In response to the article printed in the North Bay Nugget on January 4, 2007.


Craig Dellandrea is quoted in the Nugget as follows: “The Liberals put us into Afghanistan, and now, since the election, the entire Liberal caucus is trying to say that the Conservatives have changed the mission of the forces in Afghanistan, which is not at all true.”

From his use of the word “us”, one might conclude that Craig is in Afghanistan. However, unless I am badly mistaken, he is not in Afghanistan, and he is in no danger of making the trip back to North Bay in a body bag. I point this out because people who support war sometimes forget to distinguish between their talk and our soldiers’ walk.

It is easy to support a war that one has no chance of dying in.

Mr. Dellandrea disingenuously claims that: “The forces are doing exactly what they were sent there to do by the Liberals”.

The Liberals sent Canadian soldiers to perform peace-keeping duties. Since the Conservatives took power, the soldiers have been issued combat rules of engagement, meaning that they now attack people with the intention of killing them. Considering how the casualty rate has climbed since Mr. Harper started giving the orders, it isn’t surprising that a Conservative apologist might not want to acknowledge the differences between attacking and peace-keeping.

Under Chretien and Martin, our forces were in Afghanistan primarily to provide security services and humanitarian relief. Under Harper, Canada is at war, and most Canadians, myself included, don’t know what our mission is there. Until the mission has been identified, and the elected government can claim to have a clear mandate to use our forces to carry out said mission, there is no reason for our troops to be placed in harm’s way.

People like Mr. Dellandrea, who actively “Support Our Troops” while situated several thousand miles away from the danger our troops face, need to be more concerned with the ethics of their position, and less concerned with scoring political points.


Tony Loeffen