Support our troops?
Reuel S. Amdur
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Fifteen Days, by Christie Blatchford (Doubleday Canada), 385 pp.
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Christie Blatchford's Fifteen Days beset by inconsistencies
Christie Blatchford's Fifteen Days is a difficult book to evaluate - there are some fairly major irritants rubbing up against otherwise capable and sensitive reporting. The Globe and Mail columnist is unafraid to get as down and dirty as a combat boot, indulging an apparently favourite word, "fuck," in all its variants. And while the word is quite in order when quoting casual soldier lingo, there is something that smells of posturing when, in the introduction, she is reporting on a conversation with her jogging companions: "I had no fucking idea how to write the fucking thing."
And yet her description of the way Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan lived and died rings true. She was there for some of it and interviewed soldiers for most of the rest.
Her detailed account, however, belies the broad stroke of her opening sentence ("By July 2006, Task Force Orion was a killing machine"). Soldiers treated captives humanely, though we are now very clear that things changed drastically when they were turned over to Afghan authorities. Medical and other kinds of aid were dispersed to villagers. A few of the solders were contemplating how they could help the Afghans after their tour of duty, possibly setting up charitable agencies. Hardly just "a killing machine."
One interesting aspect of the book is the description of how Canadian Forces provide comfort and assistance to families of those killed, not just in the immediate aftermath, but with ongoing support.
What is clearly missing is a
recognition of the naysayers in uniform. Surely not all the troops are as gung-ho as Blatchford, and one suspects she was not trying too hard to find soldiers whose viewpoint differed. Rather, she takes it for granted that in tacitly fighting on the side of Afghanistan's warlords, Canada is fighting the good fight. Tell that to Afghan MP Malalai Joya: When she stood up in parliament to denounce the warlords present, they threw things at her, tried to attack her and shouted, "Let's kill her! Let's rape her!" Of course such talk could not be tolerated: She was suspended.
