Harold Jarche, who has a habit of making me think and debate myself, commented on yesterday’s rant. His comment was, as always, well thought out and engaging. Thus I’m using a part of it to springboard into today’s post:

However, it is up to the Canadian public to continue to engage our elected officials in a real debate about where we should use military force (not just because it’s UN-sanctioned) and what size and type of a force we need to maintain.Neither blindly supporting our troops nor blindly waving the peacekeeping flag will help us or our soldiers in the long run. Soldiers and civilians must clearly understand what we are fighting for and how it is in our national interest. There’s a lot of learning left to do.

I’ll admit, I am going to tend to side with the “blindly supporting our troops” when the government sends them somewhere because I’ve got a personal connection with those we’re sending overseas. I’m a military spouse and come packaged with all the bias that entails. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t discuss why we’re there, what it appears we’re trying to do, and whether or not we think it’ll make any difference on a global scale in the long run at our dinner table and around our backyard fire pit.

I guess my concern comes from the fact that people don’t really seem to be debating. Those I’m exposed to (face-to-face) seem to just be randomly stating that troops should be removed – no ifs, ands or buts about it – or that we need to switch focus to peacekeeping because “it’s what we’re known for“. It’s been my experience that if I attempt a debate or any form of f2f discussion on this topic, no one seems to have formulated any alternative suggestions to deal with the situation in the middle east (or anywhere else we’re involved for that matter).

Sure, we need to engage politicians (elected and not) in debate about the current state and future plans of the CF. I just don’t see the calls for troop withdrawls or a switch to peacekeeping as a debate. Perhaps I’m blinded by my close connection to the CF, but it’s not a debate if the argument is made up of “because I said so” or “because that’s what we’re good at” statements. Those calling for change need to be able to articulate an argument as much as those who support the current actions in Afghanistan are expected to.

Debate is a necessity. We need to be questioning why we’re there and where we see ourselves going. We also need to delve deeper into our understanding and definitions of ourselves (individually and as citizens in a global sphere) and how these mental models are impacted by both what we say and do. If we’re not questioning things, then we’re not doing anyone any use.

Technorati Tags: peacekeeping, canadian forces, debate

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