Canada’s war in Afghanistan is said to have captured generations of soldiers, diplomats, aid workers and even journalists and never let them go.
On Sunday, dozens of veterans and dignitaries gathered in a cold, rain-soaked square around Ottawa’s National War Memorial to mark the 10th anniversary of the withdrawal of troops from the long-suffering South Asian nation. That idea was fully expressed.
It was a low-key ceremony, much like the last time the Canadian flag was lowered at the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul a decade ago.
Back in 2014, no government ministers were present at the ceremony, and the public was first alerted to the training mission on March 12, when the last troops boarded the helicopters for the first leg of a long journey home. I learned the news of the final withdrawal of.
Ten years after Canadian troops withdrew from Afghanistan, they held a low-key ceremony in Ottawa to honor the lives lost and reflect on the lessons learned from the country’s longest war.
On Sunday, the country’s Veterans Affairs Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, along with several soldiers, veterans and families of the fallen, were in attendance. However, there were a lot of empty chairs, which partly reflected the weather and partly the occasion itself.
“No one is left with the Afghan experience intact,” said Gen. Wayne Eyre, the country’s top military commander. “Many of us asked, and continue to ask, ‘Was that what it was?'” worth it? ‘”
resurgence of taliban
Mr Eyre acknowledged it was a “very personal” question. The situation has become sharper and even more painful since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021. By reimposing a brutal theocracy, the once brutal rebel group wiped out nearly everything Canada and its allies had fought to achieve.
“But I can proudly say that we did everything the government asked us to do,” said Eyre, who led the Canadian team that infiltrated Afghan soldiers in Kandahar and taught them how to fight. Ta. “Our members served with courage and selflessness. We were there to make a difference, and they did.”
The rapid collapse of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in the face of a resurgent Taliban was a huge blow not only to Canadians but also to other allies, including the United States and Britain. NATO countries invested billions of dollars and hundreds of lives to build up their nascent fighting forces.
The collapse of the ANA, like everything else about Afghanistan, was brought about by a complex set of factors, including bribing key tribes to withdraw support from the government, the U.S. inability to maintain the Afghan air force, and the incompetence of the Afghan air force. It was done. Some ministers were appointed by former President Ashraf Ghani.
Professor Sean Maloney of Britain’s Royal Military College said it was surprising that Canada had paid so little attention to Afghanistan since 2014, other than cutting checks to maintain security and humanitarian efforts. .
What he discovered, which he described as “absolutely interesting”, was that by 2016, the Taliban and other rebel groups were all but cornered and torn apart by infighting. It wasn’t until the Trump administration began negotiating a peace deal that the extremists came together with renewed purpose and energy.
“Things will only get better when decisions are made, announcements and discussions are made regarding the withdrawal of U.S. troops, all of which led to the outcome of 2021,” Maloney said.
He said this is an important consideration as Canadians look back and assess whether the effort and expenditure of lives and money was worth it.
A national conversation about Afghanistan?
Mulroney said he doesn’t believe Canadians are ready, politically or socially, to have a national conversation about the war in Afghanistan. He said the public, politicians and state institutions don’t like to talk about wars, conflicts and sacrifices unless it’s in the distant past, like World War II.
“Did we understand Somalia? Did we understand Rwanda?” Mr. Maloney asked, referring to the failed peacekeeping mission of the 1990s.
He said Canadians don’t even understand what the military did in successful missions, such as the 1993 Battle of Medak Pocket, which nearly prevented a genocide from occurring.
“So if we’re expecting to come to terms with Afghanistan and we’re not talking about all the other things that happened in the previous 10 years, how can we have a conversation?”
Maloney added that he was “not sure it’s even useful to discuss” the war in Afghanistan. “People just don’t want to know, because if they find something negative, it could influence the current political agenda.”
Mulroney spent more than a decade fighting a tough battle with the Department of Defense to publish a three-volume history of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
big questions about war
But Eyre disagrees, believing that in the current climate of escalating wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, a national dialogue about when and how Canada might go to war is essential. There is.
The reluctance to confront the past is understandable, says an Afghan-Canadian journalist who fled the country in the years before the Taliban’s resurgence.
Hrozan Rahmani said, like any war, Canada’s legacy is a mix of good and bad.
Perhaps there is some solace in the stories of individual Afghans like her, whose lives have been improved or irrevocably changed.
“When Canada intervened in Afghanistan in accordance with international commitments, I was a teenage girl who was out of school for almost five years because of the oppressive and dark regime,” said Rahmani, who defected to Canada. . Threats from corrupt warlords.
“Canada’s intervention allowed me to go back to school and felt a sense of freedom and hope. It was like a new beginning for me. An opportunity to pursue an education and strive for a better life. I got it.”
