The fallout of what is happening in Afghanistan is touching home. After almost 20-years of bringing balance to the nation, the Taliban reclaimed the capital in just eleven days recently. A local veteran of the Afghan war, who asked us not to release his name, says “Canada’s mission was to provide security so Afghanistan could raise an army. The fact their army didn’t succeed, doesn’t fall on us.” The former military member has since been released from the CAF, but says if called upon, he would do the mission all over again. He also says that he doesn’t consider the mission a waste. Noting that the Canadian Army completed their job and feels it was the right time to end the mission. The veteran completed multiple tours to Afghanistan and says he wasn’t surprised to see the Taliban take over power so quickly. “There was so much corruption and greed, you didn’t know which local villagers you could trust”. He goes to say that the Taliban is not an army you can just defeat. “It’s an idea that is put in peoples heads, mostly controlled by fear and will never go away. We had to take a shot at helping innocent people, but it’s too bad they couldn’t fight back to help themselves”. The former CF member says that things there were changing for the better over the years. He says he hopes that more government don’t recognize the Taliban as government or given them any type of voice. He closed out his interview saying that he wishes the Afghan people well, but understands they have a tough road ahead.
