Silly Little Country

Let me give the CBC some credit

For some very odd reason that I do not get, and this refutes my earlier puzzlement about some special silences, this morning's newscast on CBC Newsworld is utterly dominated by the role of our soldiers in Kandahar. And they are doing a reasonable job of giving voice to the soldiers who represent us there, helping to support the Afghani chance for a decent civil society.
It is not surprising, however, that there is a deep ambiguity about the fact that some of our soldiers are being killed (and not just by American friendly fire, which sends our press into happy gyrations) And the ambiguity is even deeper in contemplating that our soldiers might actually find themselves in a real battle. And kill someone else (one of the 'scumbags' as our Chief of Defence Staff put it.)
The man-on-the-street interviews reveal what you would naturally expect - knee-jerk views with little thought - "Canadian troops should support peace and freedom".
What is not addressed here is the key point - what if the price of freedom is the disruption of peace? This is the problematic question many of the debates of the last four years have stumbled over, and how you decide on that one question is what divides so many of us now.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:49 AM