Is Canada Facing a Quagmire in Afghanistan?

Likely not in the classic sense of the U.S. rut in Viet Nam (1950? - 1975 ) or the U.S.S.R. when they took on the Afghan rebels (1978 - 1982). But, if we're truly under the direction of the United States in this effort to tame the untameable there may be reason to take pause. Afghanistan is currently on the political back burner in the U.S. however, a case can certainly be made for the need to continue the policing of the country by NATO and coalition forces. The next president of the United States will undoubtedly still have both files on his desk when he first takes his seat in the oval office. The current Canadian government is striving to prove itself to the U.S. as a true ally and Canadian soldiers are paying the price for this reconciliation. To be fair, I felt a limited strike in Afghanistan to close the terrorist training bases and track down and capture Osama Bin Laden was more than justified but this turned out to be a rehearsal for the Iraqui invasion. Nothing short of regime change would suffice.

History tells us this region is best left alone. The British found out in the 1800s and Rudyard Kipling states it best in his poem "The Young British Soldier "

'When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.'

Things in Afghanistan haven't changed much since 1839 and we may as well learn from history now, sooner than later we will have to leave this land to the people who live there.