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We're Blasé About Fate of Canadians in War on Terror
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
(1:00 AM ET)
By Thomas Walkom
The Toronto Star

The most curious element of all of this is the attitude of Canadians themselves. My guess is that more people in this country sympathize with Schmidt and Umbach, the U.S. soldiers charged with killing Canadians, than with Khadr, the Canadian.

Such a strange business, war. Two American airmen accused of killing four Canadian soldiers are honoured by the governor of their state. Meanwhile, a Canadian combatant accused of killing an American soldier is held incommunicado and against all rules of international law.

The Canadian, 16-year-old Omar Khadr, and the two U.S. airmen, majors Harry Schmidt and William Umbach, all have something in common. All three were foreign soldiers fighting in someone else's civil war.

In this case, the civil war happened to be in Afghanistan. Schmidt and Umbach were there because their country's president, George W. Bush, decided to back one side in the Afghan civil war, ostensibly as part of his response to a terror bombing in the U.S. carried out by Saudis and Egyptians.

Exactly why Afghanistan, rather than Saudi Arabia or Egypt, bore the brunt of America's revenge for the Sept. 11 bombings is a question few ask. But it did. That's why the two airmen and the four Canadians they inadvertently killed were there.

Khadr apparently chose to fight for the Taliban government of Afghanistan, the other side in this civil war. I say "apparently" because it's difficult to ask for details from someone who is being held incommunicado in an unspecified location.
(More: TheStar.com News Source)
2002 © The Toronto Star.

Dan