March 8, 2010

Canadian military quietly preps for longer Afghan mission

Canada’s troops are supposed to leave Afghanistan in 2011. As the conflict drags on and the death toll rises, the Canadian government and military plan for the next decade of war—this time with Canadian jets dropping the bombs On Monday, November 3, 2008, while on patrol in Afghanistan, near the village of Wech Baghtu in the district of Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province, international and... [More >>]

February 10, 2010

For artists embedded in Afghanistan, propaganda concerns linger

Sharon McKay in Afghanistan with the Canadian Forces Artist Program. Photo courtesy Sharon McKay. Young-adult novelist Sharon McKay has visited some rough parts of the world in search of material for her stories. When she was writing War Brothers, a book that follows five child soldiers through war-torn Uganda, she travelled to that country to interview kids on the ground. For an upcoming book about... [More >>]

October 7, 2009

After 8 years of senseless death, it’s time to leave Afghanistan

[This editorial appears in the November-December 2009 issue of This Magazine, in subscribers' mailboxes, and available on newsstands, the first week of November. We preview it here today to mark the eighth anniversary of the Nato invasion on October 7, 2001] The unhappy nation of Afghanistan had a bad year in 2009. For a country of such epic misery, violence, and corruption, that’s really saying... [More >>]

September 1, 2009

Hostile takeover: Canada’s outsourced war for Iraq’s oil riches

Think we never went to Iraq? Think again. In March 2008, when the invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush’s “coalition of the willing” marked its fifth anniversary, Canadian media outlets were in a self-congratulatory mood: “Canada isn’t involved” there, one reporter wrote. “The further we get away from the actual date, the better Canada’s decision to not get involved with the U.S. invasion... [More >>]