Tuesday, October 17, 2006
more dead in afghanistan
death toll in afghanistan
Why does the first paragraph of every story about Canadian soldiers, end on some variation of the phrase, since 2002? If we look at the numbers year by year we see that there were four killed, by friendly fire, in 2002; two killed in 2003; one, early in 2004; one late in 2005 and then we come to 2006.
Since January 15, of this year, we have the killings of one diplomat and 34 soldiers. At this rate we may expect to see another seven or eight killed before Christmas. I'm not going to blame the mounting death toll on our current government in Ottawa or on any change in policy since the beginning of Canada's role in Afghanistan. I would like to read a first paragraph that ends with, "one diplomat and 34 soldiers killed in Afghanistan, since January 15, 2006.
Why does the first paragraph of every story about Canadian soldiers, end on some variation of the phrase, since 2002? If we look at the numbers year by year we see that there were four killed, by friendly fire, in 2002; two killed in 2003; one, early in 2004; one late in 2005 and then we come to 2006.
Since January 15, of this year, we have the killings of one diplomat and 34 soldiers. At this rate we may expect to see another seven or eight killed before Christmas. I'm not going to blame the mounting death toll on our current government in Ottawa or on any change in policy since the beginning of Canada's role in Afghanistan. I would like to read a first paragraph that ends with, "one diplomat and 34 soldiers killed in Afghanistan, since January 15, 2006.
