IWENT TO AFGHANISTAN in 2007 to serve my country. Canadians had been attacked by adherents of an ideology who considered our way of life abhorrent. It was clear that those ideologues intended to continue attacking us. Our choice was, and remains, to fight them now in Afghanistan or later closer to home.
I also went to fight for human ideals that are primordial. Idealism of this kind is often derided in modern society, but it is at the core of who I am.
My decision to go to war nonetheless shocked everyone who knew me. Interrupting a successful career was bizarre; putting myself in harm’s way in my late forties, while I had a wife and young daughter at home, was incomprehensible. It was to explain my actions to my friends and family that I began writing a diary.
Readers of that diary felt I had done a good job of explaining what was at stake in this war and why our country should participate in it. By a series of serendipitous events, my diary became a book, FOB Doc. This was a completely unexpected development, but one that had great potential benefit. To have more Canadians read my words would give these ideas greater exposure. That book, however, was an outgrowth of a conversation I had been having with those I was close to; my own experiences were the focal point.
When the Canadian Forces asked me to return to Afghanistan in 2009, I was determined to write a very different book. This second effort would be a conversation with all Canadians. I would look outwards, this time, and focus on the extraordinary men and women who were with me. I also wanted to write much more about the Afghans: those who were fighting to rid their country of the Taliban curse, those who fought against us, and the ordinary people caught between the warring camps.
This book is also an act of remembrance, and not only for our fallen. I hope that, by reading in detail about the experiences of one deployed group, Canadians will learn what life was like for all those who served in Afghanistan. To this end, I asked many veterans to read my various entries. They offered clarifications when I asked for them, and corrections when my all-too-human memory lapsed. I hope that, with their help, I have succeeded in being accurate. I will know I have succeeded when my fellow veterans tell me that I got it right, and that I helped them to explain to their own friends and families what they experienced. That will be the highest accolade.
Lastly, this book seeks to raise the awareness of Canadians about a tiny piece of ground halfway around the world, a piece that most of them have never heard of. Many of our citizens will recognize Kandahar as the Afghan province in which we have been fighting for the past four years. Very few will recognize the names of Shah Wali Khot, Arghandab, and especially Panjwayi and Zhari. Those are the province’s districts where virtually all the combat in which Canadians have been involved has taken place, an area roughly the same size as the Greater Toronto Area.
Why did we expend so much blood and treasure in such a small area? Because it is the birthplace of the Taliban, and the area where they have the most support. In 2006, with the Taliban resurgent, Canadians took on the toughest assignment there was. We paid a heavy price to do so: on a per capita basis, Canada has suffered more casualties than any other nation in the Coalition. For over three years, Canadian soldiers held the line against the worst the Taliban could throw at us. That is something all Canadians need to know.
As I write these words, the outcome of the Afghan war is still in doubt. I worry not only about what the outcome will be, but also about how Canadians will perceive our participation in this conflict.
Defeat is an orphan. If the war ends in some kind of fiasco, there is the chance that Canadians will turn their backs on this memory.
But what if we win? Victory has a large extended family, all of whom want to come to the celebration. The British and the Dutch deserve to be there—they did their share of the heavy lifting in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces respectively. Our other European NATO allies were conspicuous by their absence in the violent southern provinces during the difficult years, but they are sure to come out from their hiding places and demand a place in any victory parade.
In either scenario, there is the possibility that Canada’s accomplishments will be downplayed. That would be a grave injustice. Canadian soldiers have fought and continue to fight in Kandahar with as much tenacity as their forebears did at Vimy Ridge and at Juno Beach. It is essential that the names of Panjwayi, Zhari, Arghandab and Shah Wali Khot become as much a part of our nation’s collective memory as those storied places.
That is the true goal of this book.