Re: Hold out for diplomacy and nagotiation, not guns and bombs, in Afghanistan, letter to the editor, Huntsville Forester, Feb. 27.

 As Mr. Earl said, “You’ve missed the boat,” and I figure all other modes of transportation.

As the wife of LCol Dave Fraser, who recently served in Afghanistan, I would like to fill you in on a few facts that you may not be aware of.

Why do people keep saying, “Why are we in Afghanistan and not other countries?” We are in Afghanistan on a combat mission (not a war) because they asked us for our assistance in bringing peace and stability to their country.

While there are many places around the world that also need assistance, we only have so many troops and so much aid to give, and we shouldn’t abandon the Afghans because somewhere else is more popular (and less dangerous) this week.

Presently, the majority of the country (30 out of 34 provinces) is actually quite stable. It is primarily the four southern provinces of Uruzgan, Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul, where the insurgents (either Taliban or drug lords) are quite active.

Besides the fact that our help was asked for, and we (Canada) took on the most dangerous province when no one else would, there is a bigger, more strategic, picture.

What are the consequences if Afghanistan falls? We have all heard that Afghanistan is basically a country without real borders as it is made up of many tribes who were separated by arbitrary lines drawn on a map.

The largest tribe in southern Afghanistan are the Pashtun, who make up the majority of the population throughout southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The Taliban are ethnic Pashtun and have many connections within both the Pakistani government and military, who originally supported their (the Taliban’s) climb to power. And what does Pakistan have that Afghanistan doesn’t? Nuclear weapons.

If Afghanistan falls apart again, there is a very real chance that the already shaky government in Pakistan may also fall, and some of those nuclear weapons may find their way into the wrong (but more than willing) hands. Neither Pakistan’s neighbour, India nor other regional powers throughout the Middle East would want to see that, and would quite likely act with force to prevent it, putting millions of people at the risk of nuclear war.

We are also there to help train the Afghan National Army, police and provide humanitarian assistance. The army is well trained and fights alongside our soldiers. The Afghans are some of the bravest soldiers in the world and both respect and are respected by our Canadian troops.

The police, on the other hand, are having a harder time, as it is easier for the Taliban to kill the police, who are stationed in small isolated detachments without communications or even a good supply of ammunition, and because the effort to train and restructure the police (who were originally just the hired thugs of local warlords) is just getting off the ground.

Despite the fact that it doesn’t get much press coverage (explosions and firefights get far better ratings than do the digging of a new well or the reopening of an irrigation canal), Canada, through Foreign Affairs, CIDA, and the Canadian Forces, delivers the vast majority of the humanitarian aid in southern Afghanistan. All this despite the current security situation. (Just imagine a charity trying to deliver Christmas hampers in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto in the middle of a gun battle between rival street gangs.)

As for your crystal ball prediction that we will not win in Afghanistan, we all have to realize that we’re not there to “win” in Afghanistan, we’re there to help this country get back on its feet, and I say back, because at one time, Afghanistan had some of the best schools, universities, businesses etc. in Asia, before the Russian war, the civil war, and the Taliban pretty much destroyed everything of value.

The country is rich in natural resources, was a net exporter of food and hydroelectricity, and the people are among the hardest workers you have ever met. They are proud and do not want a hand out but a hand up. This is why education is so important, because without it they will remain in a constant state of poverty, reliant on the world’s charity.

We are helping them get there; yes, there are still corrupt politicians and warlords, but they will slowly be weeded out. Unlike many “Westerners,” Afghans are people who believe it is more important to be rich in honour than rich in money, and because of that, they will eventually remove the corrupt.

An Afghan general once said to Dave that he appreciated the fact that “the British will do things around you; the Americans will do things for you, but that the Canadians will do things with you.” Canadians respect them, their beliefs and traditions and we are helping them to help themselves.

We have lost 79 soldiers to date, more than half of whom were killed while on supply missions by roadside bombs. Only the Canadians have to send our young men and women on these dangerous supply missions down obvious routes, because we no longer have the helicopters to carry out the resupply of our troops (we sold them to the Dutch back in the ’90s). So if we did have helicopters, the supply missions would be much safer with far fewer casualties (like everyone else’s).

As for your statement that 1,000 more troops will not stem the chaos or killing, we have to realize that Canada is patrolling the largest province in the country (about the size of New Brunswick), in the very heartland of the insurgency, with less than 1,000 combat troops. The extra 1,000 troops would allow our soldiers to stay and secure the areas they work in, allowing reconstruction to take place, rather than dashing around, putting out brushfires as they pop up.

Whether we want to believe it or not, we actually have the best trained and equipped men and women serving in the conflict bar none, and every reason to be proud of them by honouring the sacrifices they have made serving our country and the rest of the world.

Something else many of us don’t seem to realize is that when the Soviet Union fought in Afghanistan, perhaps the main reason they were defeated was because the United States was providing all the weapons and financing to the insurgents, literally outspending the Soviets three to one. Eventually, the Soviets could no longer afford to fight the war, and left. The Soviet Union collapsed within 18 months.

One of the most aggravating issues I find is that many think that a change in the White House will make all the difference. Diplomacy and negotiations will only work if all of us in the developed world stop going after the Third World’s oil and other natural resources, and deal with them honestly and fairly. Lone among the great nations of the world (and yes, we are now actually a “Great Nation”), Canada has never gone into a war or any other combat mission for financial or territorial gain, but rather, because we believed that it was the “right thing to do.” Yet another thing we can be proud of.

So in conclusion, Mr. Wahl, I believe that perhaps not just our government, but many poorly informed Canadians, have “Head in the desert sand disease” and that all of us should educate ourselves on the facts, not the misinformation provided by those politicians of all stripes looking to make political points, and some members of the media who may have let personal bias outweigh the objectivity that must be maintained, in order to ensure the credibility of a free press, so essential to our democracy.

Laureen Parsons,
Kenora, Ontario