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STOGRAN: Troops 'Lining Up' to Go to War
Monday, September 30, 2002
By Stephen Thorne
Canadian Press Writer

Lt.-Col. Pat Stogran commanded Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan.
Image Credit: The Canadian Press.

"We're just too self-absorbed as Canadians, thinking that we get something for nothing. We don't. Yes, we're international peacekeepers, but we do it at a cost and the cost is in terms of human sacrifice -- civilians and military."

OTTAWA, Canada -- CP
Canadian soldiers are paying the price of too many overseas rotations but they will line up to fight a war in Iraq or elsewhere, says the man who commanded Canada's first combat mission in 50 years.

"There's no doubt in my mind if the second battle in this campaign against terrorism arises -- as I'm sure it will somewhere, sometime -- that we will have troops standing shoulder to shoulder saying goodbye to their families and lining up to do it," Lt.-Col. Pat Stogran said in an interview.

Stogran, who led Canada's 850-member battalion for six months in Afghanistan, said the military is rife with stress and marriage breakup yet its soldiers are more than willing to take on tough assignments.

"The strange irony is if it's really routine, humdrum like Bosnia or an exercise, the troops aren't interested in it," he said.
(More: The Halifax Herald News Source)
2002 © The Canadian Press.

Dan