“Retribution.” Canada fights in Afghanistan in retribution for the Canadians killed in New York in the September 11 terrorist attack, Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor explained to a largely military audience in Edmonton this week.

The Conservative, a former lobbyist for the defence industry, pointed to the need to punish the Taliban, as 2,200 fresh Canadian troops prepared to depart for the southern part of Afghanistan where the fiercest fighting is taking place.

If you think this reasoning behind the mission to Afghanistan is spurious, you would be right. The Taliban did not attack New York; no Afghan group is responsible for 9/11.

Canada is in Afghanistan because the U.S. is in Afghanistan. Initially our troops fought under the American flag, and under American command, before NATO took control for the operation.

Though it is hard to believe it could be possible, the military thinking used to justify the operations undertaken by our troops is even weaker than the reason — retribution — for us being in Afghanistan cited by the Minister. According to National Defence, Canadian forces “must be prepared to fight and win the three block war.”

The new Canadian fighting strategy was devised by an American, marine commandant Charles Crulak. It is simple to explain and likely impossible to execute correctly.

Imagine a Canadian soldier on patrol in Afghanistan. In the first block the soldier meets a hungry family. He or she provides them with food and instructions as to how to access humanitarian aid.In the second block the soldier encounters two warring factions. The Canadian’s mission becomes peace-keeping, separating the combatants, restoring calm to the area.

In block three, our soldier comes under fire, takes cover, and shoots to kill.

According to the Canadian version of this American military thinking, our soldiers have to be able to undertake all three operations, one after the other, in the same area, be it city blocks, or difficult terrain. Operations emphasize the importance of lower level leadership; they are to be conducted by “strategic corporals.”

The American military are applying the principles of the three block war in Iraq. The results are strikingly unsuccessful. U.S. military operations are futile. There is no reason to believe they have any hope of ever being effective in Iraq or Afghanistan.

To convince us of the importance of carrying on with the Afghanistan mission, National Defence states: “We will have to succeed before some of the people there bring instability here to us.”

We are supposed to be convinced: the 44 Canadians dead in Afghanistan, died, first, to avenge the Canadians who died in the World Trade Centre; and second, to prevent the Taliban from striking again in Canada.

Reasoning like this succeeds in convincing us of the inanity of the Minister and the stupidity of continuing the mission. The troops need to come home.

Canada has a long military tradition. We had a Canadian military in the 19th century, though we did not have a foreign policy formally independent of Britain until the Statute of Westminster in 1932. Canada’s military role is a matter of interest to all Canadians; it should be a subject of informed debate, inside and outside Parliament. Instead we have had half-truths about what we are doing in Afghanistan, and why.

It is time to re-assert political control over the military. Jack Layton and the NDP have called for withdrawal of Canadian forces from combat. In an interview given to the Montreal magazine L’Actualite, Stephane Dion has called for a Marshall plan for Afghanistan, but opposes pulling out Canadian troops, qualifying the NDP position as dishonourable.

There is no reason to believe the Conservative government has any intention of recognizing the problems with the Afghanistan mission, or that Stephane Dion will admit the Liberals should never have undertaken to appease American government opinion by committing troops in the first place.Listening to our Minister of Defence justify our mission gives us additional reasons to support the NDP call for withdrawal of Canadian military forces.