Leaving Afghanistan?

Maybe the rest of the NATO countries will sit up and take notice that Canada has every intention of leaving Afghanistan unless other countries start pulling their weight. Germany in particular is one of the countries that has taken notice. Yesterday Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it very clear, there can be no misunderstanding. Unless other countries contribute, we are out of there.

This fight against the Taliban is not our fight alone yet Canadians, Brits and Americans are doing most of it and Canada has lost the most soldiers. So many Canadian soldiers come home in caskets that they have named the stretch of highway that the hearse drives along, the "Highway of Heroes".

The latest Canadian to die in Afghanistan was repatriated on Sunday and the total now stands at 78. Canadians are fighting in the toughest part of the country and cannot and should not be shouldering the burden alone.

I'm sure on some level it's a worthwhile fight if only to make life for women and children easier but, and here is the big but...when we all finally leave will things revert back to the old ways, will the Taliban come back? It is a tribal nation and I have my doubts that lasting change is possible.