I felt I had to write in response to "Why we fight: the reasons don’t match the reality" (Issue #666, Aug 31 - Sept 6).

There have been dozens of articles written lately questioning why our soldiers are in Afghanistan. For a less biased approach, I would suggest your readers check out the last issue of MacLean’s (Aug 28th), but since most of your readers are more likely to be interested in "bitchin’ fast cars and fall fashion," I will try to briefly summarize why I completely disagree with Mr. Wells.

Giving up on Afghanistan now would be an exercise in cowardice and betrayal to the Afghan people, as well as the international coalition serving there–including our troops. Regardless of the reasons that the previous government sent our troops to there, we have made a commitment to the people of Afghanistan. At this point I’d like to mention that joining the Canadian military is 100% voluntary. The men and women of our forces train for their whole career for these types of missions; the vast majority want to be there. Those who don’t are likely burnt out from previous missions or may have made the wrong career choice. No one is ever forced into overseas deployment.

In Mr. Wells’ article, he mentions the 2006 Human Rights Watch report, "five years into our mission in Afghanistan, the subjugation of women is still a fact of life in many regions," yet he fails to mention from that same report how 68 women were elected to Afghan’s lower house in the 2005 election (that’s 27% female representation). To put that into perspective, Canada only has 20.6% female representation in our government (2004 figures). He has also failed to mention 5.2 million children are now officially enrolled in school, compared to the estimated 774,000 that were enrolled in school under the Taliban. He has, in fact failed to mention anything positive that our forces have done in Afghanistan, as do most newspapers and newscasts. Yes, there is still a long way to go and there have been many setbacks for our forces, but to leave now would set the country of Afghanistan back even further than when we first got there.

I realize I may be preaching on deaf ears when I say all of this, but I would encourage anyone who doesn’t know about this war to start reading more and educating themselves. It is not going to disappear just because you don’t like to think about it, or you "wish there was no war at all"–let’s face reality folks, it’s here. And by "educate themselves" I mean doing more than reading an article in a free weekly paper. Read and watch articles from international newspapers and news programs, not just your local or national news. Or here’s an even better idea: talk to a soldier! There are thousands of them around Edmonton. As the wife of a soldier, I have witnessed first-hand that most people would rather insult a member of the Canadian Forces than shake his/her hand. I can assure you, Canada’s forces are filled with some outstanding people, and you don’t need to be afraid of them.

The facts remain; this mission was agreed upon by UN Security Council. There are over two dozen countries involved in this NATO sanctioned mission, including France, Holland, Norway, Germany, and Turkey. Canada isn’t the only one losing soldiers in this mission. What started out as an international stabilization mission has become, by the efforts of a few opportunists in government (are you listening, Jack Layton?) and the news, a referendum on the current government, and a way for Canadians to show their dislike of U.S. foreign policy. Please don’t confuse your dislike for Bush with the needs of a very poor country in need of international help.

CRITICAL CITIZEN

I was puzzled by SEE’s Active Citizen column in SEE’s Aug 31 — Sept 6 issue. As a regular rider in the critical mass for the last few years I found the article a strange mix of congratulation and accusation of those of us who ride. I would like to be clear that I am very glad that SEE has brought this extra attention to the mass, but was troubled by a few items in the article.

First, I was surprised when the SEE representative who came to the Critical Mass in August would not speak to anyone except Mike Hudema. Mike was then quoted at length in the article, despite the fact that he has not lived in Edmonton nor ridden in the Edmonton Critical Mass for over a year. However the accusations that we are an elitist, scary or difficult group of individuals to ride with was most disturbing. We are an eclectic group, no doubt, but consist of many "normal" folks in addition to those who engage in, perhaps, a less mainstream lifestyle. I personally make every effort to welcome new riders and I’m saddened that the mystery rider in the article had a less then stellar time. We will try harder to make the Edmonton Critical Mass more welcoming, but I would like to assure readers that we are the normals, so you have nothing to worry about.

The mass rides on the last Friday of each and every month, check out

www.edmontoncriticalmass.com for more information.