Canada's dead, Conspiracy theories and Debt

Well, three more Canadian soldiers were killed yesterday in Afghanistan, bringing the toll up to 100. My heart goes out to their families, friends and colleagues. I think about my own sons, both of military age, and cannot fathom the depth of sorrow I would face at loosing either of them.

Occasionally I tune into the CBC on a Thursday at 11:30 and catch "Afghanada", the excellent radio drama about our troops in Afghanistan and the kind of challenges they face. It is very well done, well scripted, well acted. I think we owe it to our troops in the field to listen to this program as a way of keeping them in our minds and prayers.

Perhaps it was the combination of thinking about the war, Margaret Atwood's "Payback" and my sons that led me this morning to investigate one of my sons' interest in conspiracy theories. The trail led me to an article in the Pakistan Daily which reported on a group of American scientists and ex-military who are challenging the standard take on the 9/11 bombings - they have a website and call themselves the Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice. It is hard to know what to believe in this day and age, but I do think this group, with its analytical approach, poses some distressing / compelling / intriguing questions.

I know that many with sons and daughters overseas fighting and peacekeeping for Canada may dismiss such musings as disrespectful to the sacrifice their loved ones are making, and down right ungrateful to boot. Nothing of the sort is intended. With no disrespect due to those who have already died, shouldn't we think about what we are asking our soldiers to risk their lives for? The courage, and self-sacrifice of those who have already died is a debt that we who live on will never be able to repay. Do we want to increase that debt by sending others to die too, if it can be avoided?

Considering the high cost, both personal and as a nation, that we Canadians are paying to be involved in the "war on terror" launched in response to the global horror of the 9/11 bombings, it would be a good thing to sort out, once and for all, the facts behind them and who is responsible.