Trudeau has a major promise to make good on

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

If Justin Trudeau keeps only one election promise he’ll save dozens of Canadian lives. That’s right, lives, not dollars as his predecessor was so obsessed with while running up six deficits in a row and costing the lives of 158 Canadian soldiers slain in Afghanistan as well as one diplomat, one journalist and two civilian contractors.

Quite a tragedy, but it gets worse.

An investigation by the Toronto Globe and Mail reveals at least 54 more Canadian soldiers took their lives at home after returning from Afghanistan and in the last three years of the 13-year war more Canadian soldiers died from suicide (29) than were killed in combat by the Taliban (two).

That carnage is nothing less than appalling! And most Canadians  aren’t even aware of it.

But thanks to one newspaper (you remember them; print on paper) that’s willing to spend time and money to find out the truth in the grand, old tradition of print-on-paper, investigative journalism we now have physical and numerical evidence (not opinion) of how hopeless these Middle Eastern wars really are whether they’re in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.

Would you like some more evidence? Be my guest.

Remember George Bush strutting for the cameras on a destroyer at the end of the American war in Iraq and his weasel-worded comment; “mission accomplished?”

Well just what was “accomplished” in Iraq in terms of lives? According to military records, some 4,486 American forces members died in Operation Iraqi Freedom   (freedom to die!) And what was gained? Nothing! Iraq today is as far from  freedom as it was when Bush declared war on Al Qaida. As for Iraqi deaths, there are no accurate figures but there is validated evidence that at least 174,000 (military and civilian) Iraqis died in the conflict and some estimates go as high as 500,000. And the killing continues today thanks to ISIL, which arose in reaction to Western intervention

In Afghanistan, 2,354 American forces members were killed and numerous more NATO members died from Canada, the U.K., France and other countries.  As for the number of Afghanis killed in NATO-named “Operation Enduring Freedom” (enduring death!) it’s estimated that at least 91,000 Afghanis, military and civilian, have died while the Taliban continues to grow in power as foreign forces leave.

Einstein once said the true indication of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting to get different results. So there it is from one of the greatest minds in human history – our policy of endless warfare in the Middle East is insane.

The notion that bombs and missiles will bring  peace and democracy to the Middle East is obviously a farce. So why are we doing it? Let them fight their own wars. And if we want our boys to stop dying in those blood-soaked sands there’s only one solution.

Bring them home! If Canada did this, we’d assume our former role in the world as internationally, respected peace keepers instead of enablers to the American war machine.

When former Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada would send jets to Syria, Trudeau declined to support him, saying we should have other priorities. “Canada has a role to play in confronting humanitarian crises in the world,” he said and promised during the election campaign to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of the year.

Good for Justin! Even if he brings fewer than 25,000 refugees here, he makes this disillusioned Canuck proud to be a Canadian again and grateful that the decade of Harper darkness is over.

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Gerry warner is a retired journalist and believer that world peace is possible with the right leadership.