July 7th, 2011 officially marks the end of Canada’s combat role in Afghanistan as the Canadian forces hand over command of Kandahar province to the United States military. After nearly a decade of fighting, that resulted in the deaths of 157 brave and honourable Canadian service members and tens of thousands more Afghan lives, one cannot help but wonder whether it was all worth it in the end.
September 11th, 2001 undoubtedly changed the worldview of everyone on earth that day. Fury, sorrow, apathy, and joy were all suitable words that described the emotions felt by people around the globe. Most however, mourned as we once again saw the vile actions that humanity is capable of doing while under the influence of dogma. Canada, as a member of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and one of the oldest allies of the United States, was obligated to do its part in bringing justice to those who have committed the atrocities on that fateful day.
Enter Afghanistan, the temporary hideout of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of 9/11 and a perpetrator of terrorism against humanity. So it was, after fighting in Afghanistan for nearly a decade, Osama bin Laden was shot dead in a Hollywood-style raid in the neighbouring country of Pakistan.
Mission complete for Canada then? Not quite.
Sometime after the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001 where bin Laden had made a narrow from escape from U.S. Special Forces, the NATO contingency, ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) was formed with the intention of, summed in brief, nation-building. The new primary objective of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan was to ensure the safety and freedom of the civilian population from the tyranny and oppression of the Taliban.
However, as with all conflicts, mistakes are often made under the proverbial fog of war. Collateral damage in the wake of “laser-guided democracy” (spearheaded by our neighbours to the South) was inevitable. As a result, the sentiments of the common Afghan towards the coalition forces became jaded as time progressed. To them, this was no better than the Taliban rule of yesteryear. Nor was it better than the eerily similar Soviet occupation four decades ago or the British colonization attempt in the 19th century. Afghanistan with its turbulent history was aptly nicknamed as the “graveyard of empires.”
The tragic mistakes on the part of the ISAF collective also saw the revival of the Mujahedeen, an organization independent from the Taliban, that only a couple of decades ago was supported by the United States during the Cold War to fight against the Soviets. The level of irony is of Shakespearean proportions. If there is anything history attempts teach us, it would be the fact that history indeed teaches us nothing.
Canada was faced with an identity dilemma. The traditional Canadian value of peacekeeping was, to put it lightly, severely insufficient in dealing with the combined threats of the Taliban, the Mujahedeen, and other foreign Islamic extremist groups. In the decade since 9/11, Canadian foreign policy would continuously test the boundaries of our own acceptance of what it means to be a participant in the Global War on Terror. The perception of the Canadian military as a force devoted strictly to peacekeeping missions will be forever subverted by our involvement in Afghanistan. Indeed, Canada’s recent combat involvement in Libya is a further testament to the changing attitude towards which we project our military influence on the global stage. For better or for worse, as Canadians, we must come to terms with the transformation that our nation has undergone. Like an artefact of history, the symbolic blue beret donned by our forces for the better half of the 20th century had found its place on the trophy shelf, unlikely to be worn again in the foreseeable future as its color fades away in plain sight. Even worse is the possibility that it would someday be donated to the metaphorical “Salvation Army” of the world as the next generation of Canadians inherit “the house.”
The soldiers on the ground on the other hand had a completely different view of the war altogether. All members of the Canadian Forces are volunteers who willingly signed up for service, and as such, they were trained to be soldiers. They were trained to fight in a politically-agnostic environment, or more precisely, there is little room for politics to begin with when the cracking sounds of bullets are whipping inches above their head. The Canadian soldiers on the front lines of Kandahar fought above all else, for each other. They were brothers and sisters in arms. Nothing else in the vanity of madness induced by war or politics can shake their commitment for one another.
Unsurprisingly, the disconnect between a soldier’s day-to-day armed exchanges with the insurgents and Canada’s stated mission in Afghanistan, one of nation-building, conjures up a contradictory impression of our success and true objective in the foreign land. We were without a doubt the victor in nearly all the tactical engagements fought in Afghanistan. The Canadian military has some of the finest and fiercest warriors anywhere in the world. But if we were to measure our success by the number of Afghan hearts and minds we have won over, then it is with great regret to say that we did not achieve our goal. Our efforts seem to have done little more but further divide the diverse ethnic groups living in the volatile nation. The various attempts of domestic terrorism and protests within our own borders tell an even more distressing story as we began to polarize our own population.
Afghanistan will invariably fall victim to a civil war once the remaining coalition troops pulls out of the region. Even with Western military advisers who will remain in the country indefinitely, the corrupt Karzai government is still nonetheless ill-prepared to fight the far more cohesive insurgent forces.
Perhaps we are being too hard on ourselves as Canadians when we ask whether it was all worth it. Perhaps the more practical thing to do would be to reflect on the new insights we have gained as global citizens after witnessing the tattered third-world country humble a global alliance. Certainly, on the top of that list lies the realization that freedom and democracy, despite being basic human rights, is not something that can be handed out. They must be inherently craved for and earned by the nation in question, as had been demonstrated by the recent regime changes in other parts of the Middle East. Only the Afghans themselves can pick up the unremarkable pile of rubbles in their homeland and transform it into the familiar cultural mosaic found in Canada’s own underlying values. In the end, there were no grandiose victory celebrations like the ones sixty-six years ago when the boys came back from Europe. We didn’t need one. Most people were silently grateful in knowing that their loved ones are still alive and finally home again.
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