Tuesday 4 March 2008

Needed: Marching Orders for Afghanistan

March 4, the only day of the year that is a command. Not a bad day to talk about the wars again.

Prince Harry is back from them, looking not at all like either Laurence Olivier or Kenneth Branagh playing Prince Hal. A nice looking, well-built young man who may be a good junior officer but seems no more thoughtful than most 23 year olds I have known. That is, of course, why countries try to get their soldiers young, when they are still foolhardy and seducible,.

The news also speaks of another young man whose homecoming will be quite different. Trooper Michael Hayakaze of Lord Strathcona's Horse regiment based in Edmonton was killed Sunday by the blast from a roadside bomb. He was the 79th Canadian soldier kill in Afghanistan. A shame.

Maybe the command for today should be: March home.

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