Seriously. We always talk of being at war in Afghanistan, and that the Taliban is the enemy, and that we're trying to help regular Afghans. But then we have to distinguish because the Taliban itself is supported mainly by Afghans. So clearly we're trying to help non-Taliban Afghans against the Taliban. But then we treat them all with equal distrust, thus blurring the line again. It would seem to me that we have but a vague idea of who the enemy is, and who our friends are. So we treat them all like the enemy to varying degrees. We treat the locals with distrust except when they are clearly incapable of inflicting harm. But that means that as ong as there are many of them in one place, we must start to act standoffish. So we start to treat them like the enemy to a certain degree already. The line is just too blurred and Canadian troops know too little of the local cuture to be able to distinguish clearly between friend and foe. To the average Canadian soldier, if a person is shooting, he's the enemy, if he's not shooting, he's a potential enemy, and only when he's clearly vulnerable is he treated as a friend of sorts, in a condescending sort of way.
Do we really know what we're doing in Afghanistan? Are we really able to distinguish etween friend and fe very easily besides when they're shooting at us, or do they just all look the same to us?
Do we really know what we're doing in Afghanistan? Are we really able to distinguish etween friend and fe very easily besides when they're shooting at us, or do they just all look the same to us?