Afghanistan; Vietnam redux?

So its time to talk about everyone's favourite war that no one likes to talk about. I mean Afghanistan. Recently, Fox News decided to pay tribute to Canada and its service in protecting the world from terrorism with THIS poorly received, ignorantly created and downright meanspirited segment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVKlFT58Zwc

Thankfully, the host of the show in question has made a public apology and rescinded those comments, which were timed to coincide with the return of four dead Canadian soldiers to their homeland. While the nation has moved on and accepted the apology for such a crass attack on our people, the segment has become the catalyst for (more) Canadians to question our involvement in Afghanistan.

So, why are we there exactly? Most of our forces are in the Kandahar region, one of the most violent and vicious in the nation. Our purpose has been both to provide security for the Afghani populace, a task that grows ever more impossible with every attack by the Taliban Insurgency, and our other mission is to provide humanitarian aid and begin, for lack of better term, modernizing the nation through improved infrastructure and greater equality between the sexes. In this, we are also hampered by the Taliban attacks, but NATO forces are beginning to see obvious success in their efforts. This is where the debate is centered; is the improvement of life for Afghani citizens worth the lives of Canadian soldiers and aid workers?

I say it is; we have long claimed in Canada that we are a peacekeeping nation. What peace will there be in Afghanistan if our soldiers and aid workers leave and all our progress is erased? We'd be condemning a nation to civil war as the current government and the Taliban fight for supremacy. Millions of innocent people would have their lives ruined or simply be killed; as a peacekeeping nation we should abhor the idea of it and proudly stand to prevent such an event. I realize that the death toll has become unnerving to many Canadians, I'm one of them too. But we have to look at more than just ourselves; we need to look at how our actions would affect not just ourselves, but a whole nation and even a whole region of the world. A stable Afghanistan could bring peace to a whole war-torn region of the earth, how can we as a peacekeeping nation afford to stand aside and say that we've grown too squemish to protect something like that?