On and On

Today two Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber. Obviously this is a sad day and one I hope is not repeated. Though realistically I know that there will be more to come because the Taliban, far from being desperate as we are told, are growing in strength, if not popularity (Oppress us please! Ban music and dancing because they are sinful!).

I found the following comment interesting:

"They are a determined lot. Although they have lost good friends, it will only harden them more to make sure they carry on with the mission and bring it to a successful conclusion."

Who do you think said it? Well it was one of the senior Canadian officers in Afghanistan responding to questions about the soldiers' deaths. But I think it could have just as easily been translated from a Taliban commander. I think that's something we're not recognizing. As confident and positive as we are, our "enemies" are equally committed. They have a mission and goals too.

Here's a great quote from Gandhi: "Let us honour our opponents for the same honesty of purpose and patriotic motives that we claim for ourselves."

Of course I recognize that I'm not being constructive here; my usual cynical self I suppose. So what if they're just as committed as we are, you might be saying. This likely means that the war is not going to be stopping anytime soon, right? I think the next step after recognizing that our enemies are very much like ourselves, which is a huge step, is to analyze our power (we have tanks and fighter planes and they have cars with bombs inside--I assure you if they could they would gladly choose fighter planes over car bombs) and build a space to meet and converse with our "enemies".

What is going on in this world when we can't even conduct negotiations with our "enemies"? Do we actually think we'll win outright and destroy the Taliban forever? Doesn't look like we're doing a great job.