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Marching Orders
How Canada abandoned peacekeeping – and why the UN needs us now more than ever

Canadians divided

Although a general consensus on the value of the Afghanistan war may exist among decision makers within the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party and the departments of Foreign Affairs and National Defence, Canadians aren’t so convinced. In fact, Canadians are becoming more critical of the shift in Canada’s military role, in part because of the rising number of casualties that this new policy has created.

In March 2006, at the outset of Canada’s new, more dangerous and combat-oriented role in Kandahar, the Strategic Counsel found that there was 55 per cent support for Canada’s mission. But the survey also found that about 70 per cent of people believed that the main purpose of the intervention in Afghanistan was related more to peacekeeping than combat. Only 26 per cent thought that its primary role was combat.

Seven months and 40 deaths later, a clear majority of Canadians now consider the mission in Afghanistan to be a lost cause. Fifty-nine per cent told Decima that Canadian soldiers “are dying for a cause we cannot win,” according to the poll released on October 1, 2006. In the same poll, 76 per cent of respondents said U.S. policy had made the world more dangerous, and 68 per cent predicted that the U.S. would eventually abandon the Iraq war without success.56

Ironically, while Canada continues to embrace U.S. war-fighting, these same policies are becoming political liabilities for the floundering Bush administration. A recent CNN report skewered U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for his miscalculations in Iraq. Frank Sesno interviewed Major General John Riggs, who was drummed out of the military and into retirement after contradicting Rumsfeld’s “transformation agenda.” General Riggs told CNN what he would say to Secretary Rumsfeld given the opportunity:

Mr. Rumsfeld, I respect your opinion as far as this force, but you’re not God. You don’t have all the knowledge, and to bet on a single entity, especially in light of what’s unfolding in Afghanistan and Iraq, you know, I think this transformation agenda is off base – seriously off base.57

General Riggs is demanding Rumsfeld’s resignation, and a widening circle of other retired U.S. generals have joined his call.

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MARCHING ORDERS

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updated November 4, 2006