Armed and ready?

“Canada’s snipers are said to have the highest number of confirmed kills of any regular army unit in the battle.”

I read this quotation on a recent visit to Canada’s new War Museum in Ottawa. The words are those of Canadian journalist Stephen Thorne who has spent considerable time with Canadian troops in Afghanistan over the past few years.

The quotation is part of a major exhibit at the War Museum, highlighting Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan since fall 2001. It’s an amazing collection of photos, films, video and audio clips, stories, newspaper reports, as well as assorted equipment and army gear.

Visitors to the museum can examine the special uniforms that Canadian soldiers must wear to withstand 50 degree heat, a half-destroyed military jeep that was hit by a road-side bomb, and even a piece of aircraft wreckage from the World Trade Center terrorist attack which led to the “war on terror” and Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan. A special long range sniper weapon (LRSW), the kind used by Canadians, is also on display.

As I wandered through the exhibit, I pondered the words of Stephen Thorne. I wondered how many “confirmed kills” Canadian snipers were responsible for. I wondered who they had been – old men? young men? confirmed Taliban ideologues? or simply people who have legitimate grievances with the current government and its foreign supporters? Independent reports indicate that a growing number of Afghans are deeply frustrated with ongoing poverty and hunger and with being left out of the political process.

The language of “confirmed kills” is nothing new. Military forces have long used euphemisms that diminish the sense that they’re actually taking the lives of fellow human beings. “Collateral damage” is another one, made famous by the Vietnam War.

There’s something deeply troubling about the language of “confirmed kills” and the obvious pride behind it. Walter Dorn, professor at the Canadian Military College and a strong proponent of Canadian peacekeeping, says an “enemy mentality” is creeping into our Canadian Forces. This mentality is reflected in the comment by Chief of Staff, General Rick Hillier, “We are the Canadian Forces and our job is to be able to kill people.”

This enemy mentality goes along with a significant shift in how Canada perceives itself and its military role in the world. We see evidence of this shift in the following:

• Canadian Forces moving away from peacekeeping and peace support operations towards combat and counter-insurgency, such as in Afghanistan;
• a dramatic drop in financial and troop support for UN-mandated peacekeeping operations over the past decade;
• promises of significant increases in military spending, from $14 billion this year to $19 billion by 2010, along with significant new weapons purchases;
• a major new recruiting campaign, along with the implementation of co-op programs that provide high school students with academic credit and payment for training for the Army Reserve;
• government priorities that place Canadian defence expenditures at quadruple the level of overseas development assistance;
• a preoccupation with responding to terrorist acts rather than seeking to understand and address those things which cause people to embrace terrorism.

I believe that Christians who are committed to Jesus’ way of peace should have something to say about the new military realities that we’re witnessing in our nation. Christ calls us to love our enemies, practice justice and righteousness, and trust God for our security.

We can’t expect our government’s policies and actions to be guided by God’s revelation in Christ Jesus, nevertheless we can urge our elected representatives to pursue peace and security through peaceful means – because such policies make sense.

We can insist that lasting peace will more likely result as our nation reaches out in friendship to other nations, as it promotes dialogue and diplomacy, increases foreign aid, advances just trade, and deepens its investment in the nonviolent resolution of conflict.

We can urge our leaders to seek to understand and respond to terrorism through measures that lessen its attraction, rather than killing those who threaten us. We can call our nation back to those values which have been important in the past and which are not yet lost – values of cooperation, multilateralism, diplomacy, and peacebuilding. We can proclaim a message that our own security as Canadians is found as we seek the security of all people.

And perhaps someday our children or grandchildren will visit a new Peace Museum and read the proud words, “Canada’s soldiers no longer engage in killing their enemies, because they’ve found better ways to build security.”

Esther Epp-Tiessen is the peace ministries coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee Canada. This article has also been published by Canadian Mennonite and EMC Messenger.