The More Things Change ...

Yesterday (August 19th) was the 65th anniversary of the raid on Dieppe. The battle was the second major land engagement of Canadian soldiers in the Second World War. It was a complete catastrophe for the Allied raiding party. 913 Canadians died and over 2,000 were captured. Despite a positive spin put on the raid by some historians -- it taught the Allies valuable lessons that could be applied to the invasion of Europe at a later date -- most Canadians feel it was a screw up.

Significantly, the first major land engagement of Canadian soldiers in the Second World War was also a screw up that led to the annihilation of the force involved. Two battalions of Canadian infantry had been lost in Hong Kong the previous December. Those who did not die were captured by the Japanese.

It is rather ironic that these defeats are well-known in Canada, but our victories are generally ignored. It is true that Canadian assault on Juno beach on D-Day had a lot of press over the past few years thanks to the 60th anniversary celebrations, but most people know little of the invasion of Sicily, the battle of Ortona, or the liberation of the Netherlands.

This is a shame, because it underplays a key element of Canadian history and it distorts the true nature of Canada's experience in the world. While it is true that Canada has a tradition of UN peace-keeping -- a tradition which has not really been kept up over the past ten years -- we also have a tradition of fighting when we feel the fight is necessary.

I mention this because yet another Canadian soldier died in Afghanistan. Private Simon Longtin of Canada's famed Royal 22e Regiment was killed by a roadside bomb, making him the 67th Canadian soldier to die over there. Predictably, there are voices clamouring for Canadian troops to either withdraw from Afghanistan or to be reassigned to less aggressive tasks such as provincial reconstruction. (I can understand the former, but I find the latter suggestion particularly dishonourable because it says that Canadian lives are too valuable to risk, unlike the lives of our allies' troopers.)

I am not going to suggest that Canada's current involvement in Afghanistan is the equivalent to our involvement in World War Two. I am not even going to suggest that it is the equivalent of our involvement in Korea. I am, however, going to suggest that critics of the mission should judge it in similar terms.