Canadian Soldiers Killed by American Plane

An American pilot and plane killed a Canadian soldier and wounded many others two days ago (September 4th, 2006). Two A-10 Warthog attack planes strafed a group of Canadian soldiers who were about to begin an attack on Taliban positions. Pte. Mark Anthony Graham was killed and as many as thirty others were wounded. How could this happen? The Canadian soldiers were closely grouped around their LAV-3 armoured vehicles, just waking up, when the two aircraft strafed the Canadian positions. The Taliban do not have access to armoured vehicles, so the Canadians could not very easily have been mistaken for the Taliban. There is no good reason that the Americans would have strafed the Canadian position. The Americans need Canadian soldiers and the soldiers of other NATO countries in Afghanistan to free up American soldiers to fight, kill and die in Iraq.

I extend my condolences to the family of Pte. Graham, and my best wishes for a speedy recovery to the soldiers who were wounded. They do not have control over where the Canadian government sends them. They did not choose to take part in a mission of occupation and counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. They did not ask to be put in a situation where they are killing Afghani civilians.

The attack by the Americans will provide further impetus to the calls to bring our soldiers home from Afghanistan, and this is the only upside that it has. We should not be in Afghanistan because it is wrong, and we should not be in Afghanistan because the Americans are killing our soldiers. Of the 32 Canadian soldiers who have died since Canada deployed our soldiers to Afghanistan, five have been killed by the Americans. That is over 15%. If we need any other reason to withdraw than what we are doing to the people of Southern Afghanistan, maybe it is that the Americans are causing 15% of our casualties. We should support our troops by bringing them home now. I urge everyone reading this to go to the NDP web site and show their support for bringing our troops home now by signing this petition.

Cheers

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