Campaign with a low-key military message

The current election campaign hasn’t really touched on the Canadian Afghan mission - a good thing.

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted in a campaign interview, the current Canadian effort will end by December 2011 - as Parliament has already approved.

It’s not that the government is getting ready to bugger off in a hail of dust and pebbles, cutting our losses. What was implied was that Canada is in for the long haul, and the haul is to 2011 – which is one hell of a long time, during which time a lot can be accomplished. This isn’t post-Tet Offensive South Vietnam – not by a long shot.

Policies of Liberal governments over the past four decades or more to belittle our military heritage have proven a collective disaster. The too-clever-by-half claim – false, as it was – “Canada is not a military nation” cost us much.

In fact, just about everything we do is done with military precision – or we freeze to death or otherwise perish. Have you ever seen a clean-up after a blizzard? Linemen repairing downed electrical grids? Miners, foresters and fishermen at work in their respective elements? Volunteer firefighters responding to a blaze? All these things and more are done with military precision – or else. We are a military country by our very climate and nature.

Until recently, though, Canadians had no means by which to measure military actions. Military history and heritage was left to atrophy. The South African War, the closest in nature to the Afghan mission, lasted less than three years. The First World War lasted just over four years. More than 600,000 young Canadians joined up, some 66,000 of them sacrificing their lives.Though mostly on the Western front, the Canadian Corps served at various sectors over the years from Ypres, to Vimy to Passchendaele to Mons. In the Second World War, the Canadian Army served at Hong Kong, Dieppe, Sicily and Italy; and Normandy and Northwest Europe. Naval and air elements served in Europe, Asia and Africa. All in six years.

The Canadian military doesn’t own Kandahar, nor, from what one hears, would they ever want to.The current upsurge in terrorist activity will likely decline as winter comes. As well, a lot can be done to the enemy in a relatively short time as they head to sanctuaries. Let’s not forget the Americans will be going into that area in large numbers in the next year or so.

At the same time, there are other blips on our horizon. We can’t, and Parliament has said we won’t, keep all our assets on one mission in one place.

As for the NDP, they are a big beneficiary of this low level of discussion on the mission. Though this is what many could rightly say is a custom-made NDP war: development, defense, diplomacy; that party dropped the ball. Perhaps it was the aging hippies in their ranks. Anyway, it was an opportunity they missed.

As luck would have it, Harper’s going by the book on this one let Jack off the hook to seek becoming Opposition leader - at the Liberals’ expense.