By Peter G. Prontzos

It is hard to write when one is upset, and I was very distressed to hear on December 5 that three more young Canadians were killed in Afghanistan. The terrible news also made me angry.

The 101 Canadians who have been killed in Afghanistan believed they were serving our country, and for that they deserve our respect and gratitude. We must not forget or trivialize their ultimate sacrifice.

But there is an awful truth that we tend to avoid, a truth that must be proclaimed if we are to end the killing on all sides of this bloody conflict. The truth is that those 101 brave Canadians died for nothing.

Their lives were stolen from them, and from their loving families and friends, because of a lie. Too many young children will never see their fathers again, because of a lie. More accurately, they died for a series of lies.

One lie is that Canada is there to help the “democratic” Hamid Karzai. But the fact is that his government was installed by the Bush regime, and that it is both incompetent and riddled with corruption from the drug trade.

A related lie is that this is a war for women’s rights. Since when has Stephen Harper ever taken the lead in advancing the rights of women? Indeed, one of the first things Harper did when he became prime minister was to close 12 out of 16 Status of Women Canada regional offices, while removing “equality” from SWC’s objectives.

Another lie is that it is possible to win a military victory over the various tribes and political factions fighting the occupiers. British and American military officials are finally admitting that they are losing ground, and the bloodshed will only increase as the war drags on.

The biggest lie of all is that Canadians are being killed in the fight against terrorism. The Taliban did not attack the United States on September 11, and it is not the only group fighting against the U.S.–led occupation. Moreover, even the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that Bush’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have led to more anti-Americanism and more terrorism, not less. Every time innocent civilians are killed or a wedding party is bombed, more people take up arms against the U.S.–backed forces, or support those who do.

In reality, Canadians are dying in Afghanistan in order to please the Bush regime by aiding its attempt to dominate the Middle East for its own geostrategic purposes, especially that of controlling the oil in the region. In addition, there are some in the Canadian military who despise our peacekeeping reputation and would rather that we adopted the mindless war-fighting mentality of the American military.

There is, however, a sane and humanitarian alternative to endless war and continued killing in Afghanistan: start negotiations with all sides in the conflict, as many NATO countries are urging, and bring in well-funded United Nations peacekeeping troops to enforce any cease-fire agreement. This approach has been successful in similar conflicts around the world, and just might work in Afghanistan.

Instead of wasting lives and money in an unnecessary war, we could offer real development aid to the Afghan people. Only 10 percent of Canadian funding, for instance, is spent on reconstruction. Moreover, the billions of dollars being squandered in a futile military exercise in Afghanistan could be spent here in Canada, to improve our health-care and education systems, to create jobs, to house the homeless—and to help returning Canadian veterans to heal the mental and physical wounds of war. We owe them that.

Both the Liberals and the Conservatives share the guilt of having sent Canadians to a needless war in order to please the United States. But they are not the ones whose sons and daughters are facing death on a daily basis. It’s always easier to send other people’s children to war while striking heroic poses when one is safe at home.

One version of the golden rule goes, do not do unto others what you would not want others to do to you.

The fundamental question is this: would you be willing to go to Afghanistan and risk your own life, or that of your children, in this war? If the answer is no, then you do not have the moral right to ask others to do what you would not.

It is past time for us to demand that no more Canadians or Afghans lose their lives for a lie.

Peter G. Prontzos teaches political science at Langara College in Vancouver. He spent two years in the U.S. Marine Corps before moving to Canada to resist the war against Vietnam.