Remembering 9/11

9/11 is a very emotional day. Who would have thought, five years ago, that there would have been NO major attacks in the United States? Clearly, the US has made progress in the fight against terror; most of the top leadership of Al-Qaeda has either been arrested or killed. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it appears that a large part of the US is tired of the fight. President Bush rightly went into Iraq and blundered badly by not sending in enough troops. It is not clear as to whether Iraq can be saved. The Europeans could have helped in Iraq, but decided to take a pass - as they usually do in times of crisis.

Many people, including many Democrats, seem to have accepted the self-hating view of the West (the Noam Chomsky position) and seem to want to make common cause with the terrorists. How else can you explain the perverse attitudes of the New Democratic Party here in Canada? They want to sit down with the Taliban, Hezbollah and with Hamas. I'm sure they wouldn't turn down an audience with bin Laden himself.


The plain fact of the matter is that the fight is not over. Fortunately, we have a Government in Canada that recognizes this. But, we now have 2 political parties (the NDP and the Bloc) who oppose our role in Afghanistan and we still don't know where the Liberals are on this issue. As the casualties mount, I'm afraid that we will see much more opposition to helping the Afghanis. In both the US and Canada, the tolerance for any sort of casualties is low.

Our only option is to have the military in Afghanistan be the conduit for aid - in short, have our soldiers both fighting and aiding. We need to win the both the hearts of minds of Afghanis....and Canadians. And, the same goes for the Americans - they have to continue the fight against terror while winning the hearts and minds of Americans.