Does this sound like the Toronto Star?

[tuvor]

Harper's worthy Afghan mission
Mar. 14, 2006. 01:00 AM

Stephen Harper could have used March break to fight the latest Ottawa political fire or spend time with the kids. Instead, he flew into danger in Afghanistan to let Canadian troops know their Prime Minister is willing to share a bit of the risk they face and that their country is proud of them.

This morale-boosting mission was a bold and worthy first trip abroad.

As Warrant Officer John MacPherson put it, "it's a big deal" to know that the PM and the Canadian people "are thinking of us."

The message Harper carried to far-off Kandahar is one that should resonate broadly with Canadians of every political persuasion. "I want Canada to be a leader," he told the troops yesterday. "Your work is about more than just defending Canada's interests. Your work is also about demonstrating an international leadership role for our country."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142290254642&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

[CHIMO]

1. PM must still sell `war' at home

In one of many inspired moments, author and journalist Ambrose Bierce once famously commented: "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." Funny and self-deprecating on American lips, it's the kind of humour that brings out the worst in Canadians.

Because we know more about them than they know about us, because we surface in the strangest places and because we throw a much smaller shadow, Canadians flatter themselves as the better, gentler, yet more worldly North Americans. If nothing else, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Afghanistan visit and the high-risk mission there should prick that smug bubble.

Here's a truth: Canadians flummoxed by simple quizzes about their own history don't know enough about Afghanistan to reasonably decide if losing lives there is worth the sacrifice. As a nation, we don't know if twisting our foreign, military and aid policies into new shapes in the faint hope of rescuing Afghanistan is in the national interest.

Politicians will detour around tough choices as long as voters accept explanations simplified to fit on bumper stickers. To deny that is to ignore how the U.S. found itself axle deep in Iraq.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1142290254625&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

[daleo]

2. The return to village where the soldier was axed was described

I think it was yesterday's Globe, and went something like this:

A different platoon than the original was sent in. They searched the village and found 3 old guns, one positively ancient. After a while they returned them. They found a man who had some currency from Pakistan and handcuffed and interrogated him. Eventually they let him go. Then they left the village.

This mission seems vague, to put it charitably. No wonder it is proving difficult to drum up support. It sounds to me like all we are doing is making peasants resent our presence.

Today's story on that same incident revealed that the Afghan person wielding the axe (whom our troops shot and killed) was a teenager. There was no mention of the exact age, but the fact the expression was used would indicate someone closer to 13 than 19 in my opinion. Shooting foreign teenagers, even when in legitimate self-defense, is not going to earn Canadian soldiers any warm feelings.

All in all, I would say we are heading for a mini-quagmire. The right wing media will push the "support the troops" theme hard, though.