It Isn't So Easy

In an earlier post I let everyone know about how to get involved with rallies across Canada protesting our role in the war in Afghanistan. This in no way indicated that I was in support of or opposed to the rallies and their message, I simply went as an observer. Here is what I saw:

To be entirely honest, I went to this rally as a supporter of ending the war in Afghanistan. However, this is very different from being a supporter of the withdrawal of Canadian forces from the country. Let me explain.

A few years ago, after I graduated from University, I was allowed to sit in on a meeting of Professors, Deans and the Minister of Education from Afghanistan (I guess I was representing one of the 'student' voices). The first thing that struck me about the Minister was how eloquent, articulate and calm he was. He addressed many pressing issues with such clarity and seriousness that I was fascinated just listening to him. But, the one part of the entire presentation that really stuck out for me, and that has stayed with me these past few years, is when he said something along these lines:

"Yes, it is true that there is still much violence in Afghanistan, but I wish you knew about the great progress we have made as well. Our education system is improving as is our infrastructure. But, we still need your help. We need the security that Canadians can provide in order for us to achieve our goals. If you leave us, everything will be lost."

And there is the point exactly. Yes, I am against the 'war' in Afghanistan when we are talking about solving a problem with bombs and guns. But, no, I am not in support of 'bringing the troops home' as that would be entirely catastrophic. Not at one point in this rally did someone calmly say that Canadian soldiers are a part of a network, including development and governmental agencies, all with the same goal of trying to rebuild a shattered nation. And yes I know the arguments that it's 'all about oil', arguments about national sovereignty and intervention and creating more terrorists than when the whole thing started. But to be so anti-military doesn't do anyone any good. The military has changed so much in the past few decades and they are, now more than ever, a part of the peacekeeping process. Don't get me wrong, I would throw every weapon in this world into a bottomless pit if I could, but the fact is: we need soldiers to provide security alongside NGOs and government agencies.

This idea is clearly outlined in the incredible memoir about the 1994 Rwandan genocide titled "Shake Hands with the Devil" by Romeo Dallaire. I strongly encourage anyone who is adamantly anti-military (as I was) to read this book. Not only will it provide a different perspective (a conservative, military man's point of view), but it recounts in great detail the atrocities that can occur when the world turns its back on a struggling nation.

When I volunteered in India last year, a fellow volunteer (an older man from New York) said something that stuck with me. He said, "Say there is a special path that you like to take every morning because you love the trees and the rocks and the stream. But then someone decides they want to build a fence through that path, well then it's no longer the path that it once was." He was a little pompous, but basically he was talking about how I tried to 'change' things in India. I organized a group of volunteers to clean up a stream that ran through the community that was full of clothes, garbage, everything. The main impetus for this was that I am a humanist. I don't believe in lines, boundaries, borders, nations. This water comes from the same Earth we all share and as a member of the global family I had a duty to do something.

People will say that that wasn't my place, but here is the question that plagues me, as I am sure it does many Canadian soldiers, every day:

Is it better to do something than to do nothing at all?