The head of a think tank that focuses on security and military issues says he doesn't think many Canadians are counting the number of coffins coming back from Afghanistan. Alex Morrison, president of the Toronto-based Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview that he thinks the Canadian Forces will receive a "high level of support" as long as the soldiers are well trained, well equipped, and well led.

He also said that Canadians realize there are going to be casualties. Since 2002, more than 50 Canadians have died in Afghanistan, including nine this year and 37 last year. There are 2,500 Canadian military personnel and more than 30,000 NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"I don't think there are many people in Canada who are keeping track of the numbers and say, 'Listen, when we reach this [total], we have to return,'" Morrison said. "We've lost about 125 Canadian military personnel in peacekeeping missions."

On April 24, Conservative and NDP MPs defeated a Liberal motion calling for an end to Canadian combat operations in southern Afghanistan by 2009. NDP leader Jack Layton told Parliament that the troops should be withdrawn immediately.

Two weeks ago, Steven Staples, director of the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute on International Affairs, told the Straight that he thought Canada was "losing" the war in Afghanistan. He based this on the increasing number of deaths, the rising number of roadside bombs, and escalating suicide attacks on NATO forces. "Even [retired] general Lewis MacKenzie has said it's going to require another 30,000 troops," Staples, a former Vancouver peace activist, told the Straight . "That would be a doubling of what's there now. That's just not going to happen."

Morrison, however, said he doesn't think NATO forces are losing the war in Afghanistan. "The first thing some people have got to get straight in their minds is we're not over there to conquer the country," Morrison said. "We're over there at the request of the elected government of Afghanistan to do what we can to help establish better security than there is now. And within that security, the Afghan people are going to decide what the hell they want to do in the future. We're helping them against the Taliban and against these gangsters who continue to kill Afghans with impunity sometimes, and who also want to ensure that Afghan citizens are not treated fairly."

He noted that 40 countries are in Afghanistan as part of this mission, which has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council. "Generally speaking, I think Canadians should be proud of the efforts of our military," Morrison said. "It's very unfortunate that there are casualties. Everyone in the country regrets that."

Derrick O'Keefe, cochair of the Vancouver-based peace group StopWar.ca, told the Straight that he doesn't think the Canadian military mission in southern Afghanistan is a "just cause" because the Afghan people don't want their country to be occupied by foreign invaders. "We've heard many, many rationalizations along humanitarian lines in the past in Afghanistan," O'Keefe said. "Whether your perspective is winning and losing, or justice, it has certainly been a massive failure in the past. I think it's really important for people to go back to the Soviet experience."

He noted that the former Soviet Union had 100,000 troops in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and suffered much higher numbers of casualties than NATO has experienced so far. "You know, they also had humanitarian rhetoric and, indeed, some programs to build schools, and so on and so forth," O'Keefe said. "But foreign occupation was rejected by the local people."

On April 23, Staples hosted a news conference with two experts on international law, UBC professor Michael Byers and University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran. The two professors suggested Canada was guilty of war crimes if Afghan detainees that had been turned over to the Afghan government were subsequently tortured while in custody.

Staples had earlier told the Straight that any war is divisive, and this one is "creeping into our political culture here in Canada". He claimed there have been attempts to "rewrite" history to suggest that Canada has never been a peacekeeping country and, in fact, has been a war-fighting country. He cited the Harper government's attempt to "revel in the death and destruction" that occurred at Vimy Ridge on the 90th anniversary of the First World War battle "without any real appreciation for the whole costs that were incurred there".

Staples added that there was a "very crass attempt" by the Harper government to connect Vimy Ridge and Afghanistan to bolster public support for Canada's military mission in that country. "This war is as much about killing the idea of Canada as a UN peacekeeper as it is about killing the Taliban," Staples charged.

Earlier this month, Sunil Ram, a professor of military history and land warfare at American Military University, wrote an article in the Globe and Mail called "Canada the peacekeeper? A myth that should die". Ram, a former Canadian soldier and ex–military adviser to the Saudi royal family, pointed out in his article that Canada was the 38th largest contributor of troops to UN peacekeeping missions in 2004.

Morrison said that he thinks Canada has an obligation to use its military forces to "good ends" when asked to do so. "We're doing our best over there at the invitation of the Afghan government," he said.