The War on War?

A funny thing happened last week. Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to the war in Afghanistan, only to have the Opposition parties decry his use of the word "war". Apparently, referring to Canada's commitment in Afghanistan as a war is politically incorrect, notwithstanding the fact that our soldiers are killing -- and being killed by -- Afghan/Taliban rebels.

In part, this must have something to do with my country's love affair with peacekeeping -- a nebulous concept that many Canadians seem to believe consists of standing between warring factions protected by the UN flag, blue berets, and idealistic intentions. There is something gritty and dirty about the Afghan reality that many of my countrymen are uncomfortable with.

Ultimately, though, I think it has something to do with the way the meaning of war has transformed itself in the popular imagination. War is a campaign to be waged against an ideology, not an entity. We have wars on drugs and poverty and terror. We declare some programs to be the moral equivalent of war. Ironically, we do not actually seem to declare war against countries we are fighting.

Last I looked, the United States had not declared war on Iraq. I suppose the situation is a bit different in Afghanistan, where Canada is involved at the request of the government, but I don't remember NATO declaring war on Afghanistan when the US first stuck the Taliban regime. People still die and money is still spent, but not, apparently, on war.