Now seeing as Remembrance Day has come and gone, it seems appropriate to discuss our beleaguered military and the misguided government who directs it. Now I am sure I am not the only poppy-wearing Canadian getting sick of our soldiers coming home in body bags, I’m sure our government is too – but seeing as the most significant thing they’ve done in regards to our armed forces is extend our one minute of silence to two on November 11th, I question the level of their concern. Perhaps we should be more invested in our soldiers while they are alive rather than remembering them after they are gone. Although considering the steady stream of body bags coming home, perhaps the government is on to something.

I have never been a fan of war. If I was alive during the ‘60s I would have felt right at home. But I am willing to accept that there are those in this world that just do not excel at co-existing with others. People like Hitler, Stalin, and my favourite character on Team America, Kim Jong-Il. Adding to this list, you got your crazed, blood thirsty revolutionaries which are too numerous to name but dot the international map in mass quantities and can be found in tragedies like Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. No one pretends that our world is a perfect place, in fact, it is pretty messed up. And it is for these unfortunate circumstances that we have our military, and thank goodness we do.
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"Lest We Forget"

To my family and my forefathers whom sacrificed themselves and their futures for all that I have enjoyed in my life, I hope you hear this as my words; defending your gifts:

Remembering our dead and actually learning form their suffering and sacrifice are not the same things. Remembering Canada’s fallen, although sentimental and poignant, is one thing; I have lost family in all the great wars of Canada’s history since 1831 defending our world from those whom would impose their beliefs at the point of a gun or tank turret, a principle for which my grandfather fought and spent four years as a German POW in Bavaria, leaving his infant sons and wife to cold fortune and hope. Remembering these men’s sacrifice, however, (there were no women in combat roles at this time) without “learning” from their sacrifice makes their deaths, their solitude, their pain and the emotional agony they endured pointless.
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As the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan increases and days tick off the calendar, the more that the parallels between the conflict in Afghanistan and the Vietnam War are apparent.

The most notable parallel comes in Canada’s role as a preventative body against the proliferation of terrorist organizations across the Middle East and into the Western World. Canada’s emphasis on preventative action clearly parallels Eisenhower’s Domino Theory, the basis of preventative action in relation to the spread of Communism, as it applies to the War on Terror.
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The militarization of the drug war (and other issues) has been a grave mistake and has caused the deaths of millions of innocent men, women and children throughout the world.

This reality serves only a small group of men and women whose job it is to manufacture weapons of war–at the expense of the other 95 percent of the world’s population.

If the pen is mightier than the sword (and corrupt politicians) then I suggest the United Nations use their collective pen to create a Pathway to Peace, namely:

1. Eliminate the prohibition of drugs
2. Legislate a prohibition on weapons of war

What would that look like…
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On a current trip to Iraq, US President George Bush hailed progress in the war that will ultimately define his presidency. A war in which 4,209 soldiers have perished and over $500 billion worth of taxpayers money spent. He also got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a journalist threw both shoes at him, barely missing his head. The video can be seen here: