Canada in Kandahar, not punching above their weight after all

Brian Stewart has what amounts to an extended book review at the CBC site today. Stewart is a recently retired journalist.

The three books he references apparently all have less than flattering portrayals of Canada's efforts in Afghanistan. Not only did the Canadians fail to bring much weight to the game in the first place, they certainly didn't punch above it. Stewart now claims this assessment rings true.

From General Rick Hillier's ill-advised opening salvo about "killing scumbags" the Canadian mission in Afghanistan was doomed by overreach and hubris from the very beginning. Stewart lays the blame for this at the feet of both the civilian and military leadership.

I'd like to implicate another culpable party; the media.

When Hillier and Peter MacKay were busy running off at the mouth and making asinine statements about Canada's enviable reputation for "punching above our weight" the media were uncritical cheerleaders.

Editorials in the major papers regularly trotted out this nonsense, and continue to do so.

After 158 Canadian deaths, many more grievously maimed, billions of dollars pissed away, it's time we started hearing the truth.