Afghan mission still taking a toll.

At about the same time the Canadian flag was lowered for good at the country’s erstwhile base near Kandahar in Afghanistan, a group of soldiers and politicians gathered outside the Saskatchewan legislature to mark the end of the mission.

Canada’s imprint on Afghanistan is likely to amount to little more than a footnote in that war-torn country’s history, but the mark of the Afghan mission runs deep in Canada. And although Wednesday’s ceremony was in recognition of the departure of the last 100 Canadian military personnel, Canada’s exit actually took place years ago.

That came about during the 2008 federal election, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed a casual gathering of journalists to talk about many things including, as an aside, Canada quitting the Afghan war. The admission should have shocked Canadians, coming from a leader who marked his inheritance of the bloody Kandahar mission with a visit there and a promise not to “cut and run,” reflecting the national will in 2006.

However, except for some frequent camouflage-clad early visits to establish his military bona fides, Kandahar was nothing but trouble for Harper. It nearly caused his government’s death in 2009, when he was forced to prorogue Parliament rather than accept committee evidence related to the handling of Afghan prisoners, and a Speaker’s ruling that excoriated the government for abusing and misleading Parliament.

By the time Harper announced the mission’s end, Canadians no longer cared. This was not a reflection of the value they placed on our soldiers so much as an understanding that Canada, like its NATO allies, didn’t have the staying power for a war in support of a corrupt government and against a ruthless and determined enemy.

Afghan women’s rights were important but not apparently worth the price. There are more women and girls now attending school, but human rights experts deem Afghanistan as the worst country where to be born female. Reconstruction teams could build infrastructure and support democratic institutions, but sand, ignorance, bombs and acid attacks would slowly drag the country back to the Middle Ages.

Meanwhile, the war has taken an incalculable toll on the Canadians who put everything on the line for a better outcome. This is not only reflected in the recent spate of veterans committing suicides, but in their battle with the government for services, help and respect that Canadians need to insist is these veterans’ due.

But it is also reflected in the degradation of the Defence department, which is cutting essential training to shave costs and is distancing itself from those members who demonstrate mental strain.

It’s noteworthy that when the Maple Leaf was lowered Wednesday in Kandahar, none of the current or former Defence ministers or the prime minister was on hand to mark the historic occasion. It was again left to the service personnel to do the honours.

And it is left to the rest of us to honour the Canadian diplomat and 158 soldiers who died in Afghanistan, including 17 who Premier Brad Wall notes had ties to Saskatchewan.

The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper’s editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.