No peace to keep

Re: To Mali, for some image repair, John Ivison, March 20 Now that the Liberals have made good on their promise to deploy peacekeepers to Mali, they must take the next step and accept the term “peacekeeping” no longer applies. Mali is a war-torn region, where there is no peace to keep, and our military will likely come under fire and quite likely suffer casualties.

The UN hangs on to the outmoded term “peacekeeping” and we follow along, as it denotes a far simpler time when peacekeeping actually accomplished something. In the conflicts around the world, there is no peace to keep, as those sent there are battle- ready soldiers, under the very clear expectation that they will come under fire and are expected to return fire.

Using the term peacekeeping conjures up benign and no longer relevant images of our soldiers strolling through the streets passing out candies and being mobbed by children. Our government and military know what the truth is, but somehow cling to the notion that they need to sugar- coat the mission, as the populace can’t handle the reality. We deserve better.