Beechwood Cemetery, Remembrance Day Ceremony
Photo Credit: DND: Private Jonathan King
By Scott Taylor
This year’s Remembrance Day ceremonies took on a slightly more somber tone than in years past. It is always a sorrowful occasion, particularly for veterans and their families who reflect upon those loved ones who fell in the service of Canada.
However, with all the martial pomp and ceremony surrounding these ceremonies they were also unwittingly a glorification of war itself.
In the three major wars fought in the previous century, Canadian soldiers had; helped the British empire defeat the Kaiser in 1918, assisted the allies in defeating Hitler’s Nazis and the Japanese in 1945, and fought as part of a U.N coalition that was able to battle the North Korean communists to a standstill in 1953.
We essentially had a record of two wins and a tie and in each of these conflicts our soldiers’ sacrifices had not been in vain.
One could justify the loss of those loved ones with the fact that in victory they had made the world a better place.
The same cannot be said for the conflicts in which Canada has engaged in the current century.
This past summer, Canadian veterans of the war in Afghanistan had to watch with stunned impotence as the Taliban roared back to power in Afghanistan virtually unopposed by the U.S. trained Afghan government forces.
From 2002 until 2014 nearly 40,000 Canadian soldiers were committed to propping up the U.S. installed puppet Afghan government in Kabul.
During that 12-year span of commitment, 158 Canadians were killed, 2,000 were wounded or suffered physical injuries and thousands more suffer the invisible wounds of PTSD.
From a financial perspective it is estimated that Canada will eventually spend $21 billion on that war when one factors in the long-term health care costs for our wounded.
As long as the U.S. and remaining NATO allies continued to prop up the Afghan regime and fund the Afghan security forces, our veterans could hold out hope that their sacrifice could still yield a positive result.
Those hopes were dashed when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan several months ago and we all witnessed those horrific scenes of terrified Afghans clinging to American air force transport planes in their attempt to flee.
The U.S., NATO and by extension Canada lost the war in Afghanistan. With an expenditure of $2 trillion (U.S) over a 20-year occupation, the most powerful military alliance in the world was defeated by a ragtag bunch of illiterate Islamic extremists.
That is a tough pill for the rah-rah Colonel Blimps who refused to recognize there would never be a victory in Afghanistan and as such continued to take to the airwaves to help convince the Canadian public that we were one new schoolhouse short of success.
Unlike the wars in the previous century where Canadian troops were viewed as defenders and liberators, in Afghanistan we were seen by the local population as unwelcome foreign occupiers.
Thus, this year’s Remembrance ceremonies mark the first time that Canadians have had to mourn fallen soldiers who died in the service of Canada, but because NATO lost the war and the Taliban prevailed, those lives were lost in vain.
Canada has been a direct participant in three other NATO-led conflicts since 1999. That year the RCAF participated in the 78- day bombing campaign against Serbia and Kosovo. Mercifully, there were no casualties among Canadians.
In 2011 Canada was at the forefront of a NATO-led, 10-month campaign to oust Libyan President Muammar Gadaffi. Canada suffered no casualties once again.
After Daesh (aka ISIS or ISIL) swept into Iraq in 2014, Canada deployed fighter jets, trainers and Special Forces to Iraq to counter the threat.
Following the defeat of Daesh in 2017 Canadian troops remain deployed in the region as part of a NATO training initiative. To date Canada has suffered only one fatality and three wounded in a 2015 friendly fire incident in Northern Iraq.
While reflecting on the sacrifice of our soldiers we should also examine closely the results of our military actions.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 but remains to date a failed state. President Hashim Thaci recently had to step down to face charges of war crimes, including murder and human organ trafficking, which he is alleged to have committed while NATO supported his separatists with an air force which included the RCAF.
Libya descended into violent anarchy as soon as NATO helped the rebels achieve victory. In the lawless violent vacuum created by NATO airpower, Libya is now a failed state.
Under the mandate of Operation Impact, Canada remains committed in Iraq through March 2022.
No one can even define what ‘victory’ will look like in Iraq, but it will not be delivered at NATO gunpoint.
Instead of simply mourning fallen soldiers Canada needs to closer examine how we employ our still serving soldiers.
