Bruce, this is not an Obama-McCain debate thread, OK? And neither of them are "candidates" anymore.

I heard on CBC radio this morning the most heartbreaking story of many--a mother in BC who heard on the radio, while driving, that a Canadian soldier had been killed in Afghanistan, "name witheld by request of the family". She said a prayer for the soldier's family. Only hours later she learned, when her husband unexpectedly met her at a ferry dock, that the dead soldier was her son.

I am sick to my soul of these news reports. As many other countries are doing, we keep sending courageous and well-intentioned young Canadians to their deaths on the other side of the world. Many of them, and their families, maintain that we should keep doing so, but it's our civil society's role to decide where our military should be deployed, and when and where they should NOT be. The fact has become clear that we CAN't prevent our young soldiers' deaths from being "in vain".   

Dammit. I wish we could fix Afghanistan. But, even if you accept that that's the objective, we can't. All we can do is provide temporary local improvements, and sometimes not even that.   

And it's nice to be noticed, but getting positive reinforcement from Gates, Obama, or anyone else isn't going to make it work.

W-O