Afghanistan Is Dangerous Enough for Canadian Troops

For the amount of actual, lasting good we've done there, Canadian soldiers have paid a steep price.   The number of wounded and dead servicemen and women is testament to their sacrifices.

It's a dangerous place.  We don't have freedom of movement there.   Our troops remain tied to garrisons.   Outside the wire is territory they definitely do not control.  When the bad guys are able to bury roadside IEDs just beyond your gates, you don't control anything.

Thanks to our American friends the job is going to get even more dangerous.  It seems they have laws that protect religious extremism even when it sets places like Afghanistan afire, even when it gives enormous aid and comfort to the very guys who are killing our people, the Taliban and their associated Islamist allies.

Nothing gives the U.S. the right to let its citizens put our soldiers in increased jeopardy, nothing.   There are limits to this notion of free speech.  We've long decided that it's not free speech to stand up in a dark, crowded theatre and yell "fire."  When you cause people to get trampled to death, you're responsible - criminally liable in manslaughter because those deaths were the logical and foreseeable result of your reckless act.

If the Americans won't move against this pathetic pastor Jones, our troops should stay in their garrisons and pack up.