You Lost Me, Jack

This week Jack Layton has proposed that we withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan and demanded an emergency debate on Canada's mission there.

I think he's half right.

I said in an earlier post that I supported the mission in Afghanistan, and gave my reasons for it. My opinion hasn't changed. I think we're needed there, and I think it is very important that we be there, and that we stay there for the long haul.

I also think that we need to talk about this as a nation.

The questions in my mind is not, "should Canadian troops be fighting?" Some battles need to be fought. The question in my mind is, "Is there as strategy for after the battles have been fought?"

It is one thing to kill the enemy, it is another thing to leave afterwards without fixing the conditions that created the enemy in the first place. Once the battles have been won, there needs to be a specific agenda for development, education, economic stability, and democracy. If these conditions are not met, we will only leave a worse situation than the one that was there before.

There was a great deal more I was going to say, but Rex Murphy said it better.