CANUCK TROOPS KILLED

While there is a lower class I am in it. While there is a criminal element I am of it. While there is a soul in prison I am not free. -- Eugene Debs, 1855-1926

Kurt Vonnegut used that quote to lead off his novel Hocus Pocus, and over the past few years, with all the self-serving double-talk perpetrated by George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and to a lesser extent, by Canada's new Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, it resonates more with each passing day.

As you probably heard, four Canadian soldiers were killed early Saturday when the vehicle they were riding in struck a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants.

You don't want to get overly maudlin about the deaths of four men you didn't know, who died doing something that deep-down, you could not do -- go to the other side of the world and be prepared to make what is inevitably referred to as the ultimate sacrifice.

But that's what Cpl. Matthew Dinning, of Wingham, Ont., Bombardier Myles Mansell, of Victoria, B.C., Lieut. William Turner (from Toronto but stationed in Edmonton) and Cpl. Randy Payne (born in Lahr, Germany, but stationed at CFB Wainwright, Alta.) did. The risk in writing this is that you idealize people you only have a faint outline of, if any.

Mansell, a 25-year-old carpenter, and Turner, a 50-year-old postal worker, were reservists, which suggests they were Everyman types who believed, corny as this sounds in our navel-gazing times, you should answer that question about what you can do for your country.

Turner volunteered to replace Lieut. Trevor Greene, a reservist who was critically injured in Afghanistan earlier this year. Not to put myself in the story here, but Greene, like me, is University of King's College journalism grad. He had some of the same profs I did, sat in the same classrooms, drank at the same pubs.

Did I know what he was doing before I learned he was injured? No. Shame on me.

No matter what, you can't get away from the reality Canada is at war.

If you're an American reading this, it may sound strange that the death of four soldiers would be national news. After all, the U.S. has lost eight troops in Iraq this weekend, according to the latest from CNN.

But our military is much smaller, probably with less personnel than some entire American bases. So when a soldier is killed, it is news. And Canadians, in the past 30, 40 years or so, have grown less used to dealing with dead soldiers. Only 15 Canuck troops and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Compare that to the nearly 2,400 U.S. service members and military civilians who have been killed in Iraq since Bush's illegal invasion three years ago.

Some people will say, leave the politics for another day. That's simplistic thinking of the worst kind, since you can't have war without politics. Sadly, most of our politicians have done just that. The House of Commons had a debate about our combat role in Afghanistan a couple weeks ago, a disturbingly large percentage of MPs couldn't even condescend to show up.

I have no problem with the decision they made (although, if ensuring democracy and security is so important, why is Afghanistan more of a priority than the Sudan?). At least our new PM is trying to put the mission in the forefront, which is a hell of a lot more honest than downplaying it and giving your vision of a kindler, gentler Canada. No, the beef here is with some MPs who came off like they didn't care.

Now know this: We are not a country of wimps for questioning why we've increased our combat role in Afghanistan. The next time any old fart (or young fart who thinks old) tries to cast aspersions by pointing out that Canada lost 60,000 people in World War I and 42,000 in World War II -- as if to proclaim, "What a bunch of wimps we've become!" -- do yourself a favour and don't be swayed so easily.

Because the debate is not so cut-and-dried.

Harper's words yesterday were no doubt well-meant: "These men were working to bring security, democracy, self-sufficiency and prosperity to the Afghan people and to protect Canadians' national and collective security." But in the need, that is nothing more than the conceit of a politician.

He doesn't know, you don't know and I don't know what any of these men really felt, or thought.

But by their actions, these four men believed that it is possible to bring peace in Afghanistan. The same can be said of Lieut. Trevor Greene.

What they did, and the price they paid, suggested they knew as long as the people over there suffer, you and I are not free.