This is the heaviest loss of life since Canada joined NATO forces in the war in Afghanistan. It was particularly bittersweet and ironic that it happened on the weekend Canada remembered the 90th Anniversary of our victory at Vimy Ridge during the First Great War.
Two of the soldiers killed in their armoured vehicle were only 20 years old - during the Vimy ceremony, Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted that most of the Canadians killed at Vimy Ridge were between the ages of 17 and 23 years old. And yet, 90 years between these horrible wars, our young men are still dying for what they believe in.
A retired General and military analyst stated the purpose of the Afghanistan war so succinctly yesterday when speaking of these six dead soldiers. He said that Canadians are fighting in that region to take over the poppy fields (opium = heroin) that supply the money to the Taliban and other Jihad extremists. Many people in Canada think that this war is about "tribal civil war". It certainly is not - it's about fighting against the Islamist Jihadist Ideology that threatens the Western world.
This Ideology is as evil and insidious as Nazism, or the Totalitarianism that was part of the First World War. The only difference is that the "enemy" is less visible - we aren't fighting them in Europe as we did the Germans. NATO forces fight all over the world to combat this Ideology; Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the list goes on.
Let us all honour our fallen soldiers in all NATO Forces, and never forget the lessons of history.
For those who say that we "shouldn't be there", I can only say that you don't have a clue about current world politics. Be thankful for all in our military, and the agencies at home that protect us from terrorists and those who would destroy our way of life. We did it 90 years ago, and 50 years ago, and our soldiers are protecting us again. Let's support them in any way we can.
May these six families be comforted, and may their fallen loved ones rest in peace.
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