Fixin to die

And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Afghanistan;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Fixin to Die Rag, Country Joe and the Fish

Fixin To Die Rag brought out the same emotions last night at Baba’s that were common in 1967. Most people found it amusing or identified with it. One man took angry offence since 3 Canadians died in Afghanistan yesterday. AFP

Country Joe and the Fish’s anti-war song was sung by the audience at Woodstock, including Vietnam draftees. It really is a soldier’s song, thick with gallows humour. Last night, Afghanistan was substituted for Vietnam and it worked.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5btZWbViPA&amp

When the first Canadians came back home in coffins from Afghanistan, there was a sense of national mourning in the country. Now it has become routine. We hear the standard platitudes from politicians.

“Our hearts ache for them and their families, and I know as we gather here on Easter Sunday our thoughts and prayers are with them,” the prime minister said on April 8, 2007. CBC News Similar hollow comments are made at each death.

Either people’s lives are worth something or not. Politicians have been treating soldiers as expendible for millenia: this will probably not change.

The tide turned against Afghanistan in July when 44 soldiers died while only 31 died in Iraq. Canadians will easily say that Iraq is a bad war yet the one we are in is worse. Times Online

British marines in Helmand: the toll in Afghanistan is climbing rapidly, Richard Mills / The Times

Canada’s own little Vietnam has have taken the lives of almost 100 young Canadians, with no end in sight. What are we fighting for? We are not fighting to win against the Taliban since no foreign power has conquered that mountainous country since Alexander the Great and he died in the process. It’s not logical to assume Canada with it’s tiny army can make it happen.

We are probably fighting to prop up the right wing agenda of Stephen Harper. Harper has adopted the US political stance that no President gets re-elected without a war in his first term. Since Canadians are not a jingoist people, I hope that doesn’t work for him.

We are fighting to keep the war lords of Afghanistan in power. We are fighting to protect the opium trade. And we are fighting to hold the Taliban / Muslim extremists from overtaking the world.

How many young Canadians will have to die over there before they bring the troops home?

Postscript – I am neither a pacifist nor a war-monger. There are good wars, bad wars and stupid wars. This one is senseless.