I am writing to you today from the comfort of my hotel room looking over a frozen and snow-covered lake Ontario. We are over the halfway point in our training now and we’re finally starting to get into what many of us consider the most valuable part of the training; the meat and potatoes so to speak. This training reminds us in vivid and chilling ways that we have volunteered and committed ourselves, our families, and our friends to a very difficult mission. Many of us tend to downplay this particular aspect of the mission because it’s not a very comfortable prospect to dwell upon, neither for us nor for those who love us. We’re accustomed to facing the risks of police work and we’ve grown quite proficient at operating among threats and uncertainties to our personal and collective security. One of my colleagues from Montreal recently reminded us that we’ve been ‘on mission’ for 20 years. For me that experience brings comfort and a degree of confidence.
Stepping into one of the most dangerous places in the world demands reflection and serious deliberation. Do the guaranteed risks outweigh the potential benefits? Are there any benefits to be realized at all? Will our efforts in Afghanistan and the separation from our families be worthwhile? I think so, and so do my family and each of my colleagues going over. I’ve had a chance to speak to just about all of the police officers and I can tell you with certainty that they are each true humanitarians committed to this mission. We have come from all parts of Canada, each with different professional and personal backgrounds, of different religions and ethnicities, Franco and Anglo, equally resolved to giving our best to our tasks because we believe in what we are doing.
As I continue to prepare myself mentally and physically for the assignment ahead I find myself wondering to what degree my ideals about this mission might change as the months drag on and my future becomes my past. This blog is as much a vehicle to let you know what I am thinking as it is to let you know what I am doing. So in the spirit of self-reflection, and maybe a bit of cheap self-administered therapy, I’d like to share a couple of the personal philosophies that compel me. I’ve been accused many times of being naïve but I don’t mind because it means I’m also easily inspired.
There is universal equality in humanity. Nobody can claim credit for the conditions or circumstances of their birth and nobody is entitled to claim privilege as a result of their beginnings. Likewise nobody can be assigned any blame or responsibility for the situation into which they were born. When I realize that it could just as easily be me walking in their shoes then I recognize the equality of humanity. There is no privilege assumed in birth, only the responsibility to do what we can in the name of humanity. If you want to read a compelling example of this philosophy then please pick up General Dallaire’s latest book: “They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children”. Imagine your child’s soul in the body of a 10-year old boy or girl child soldier in the African bush, or pedaling a bicycle loaded with explosives into an Afghan marketplace and your life will never be the same again. General Dallaire is eloquent, honest, and writes with the vivid emotions he carried away from a genocide. You’ll never forget this book.
No relationship is inevitable. That’s a small statement but it carries with it a self-evident truth that relationships, be they between states, between a government and its citizens, between families, and between individuals, are created and manufactured. Because they are created these relationships (which some would call social structure) can be changed. The present condition of a relationship is not the only condition possible and sometimes change just can’t be stopped. Consider what is happening this very day in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen. This belief has a particular significance for me now as my colleagues and I become actors in the fractured and violent relationships in Afghanistan. I understand and believe that the current social structure of Afghanistan, rife with violence, insurgencies, religious extremism, and corruption is not inevitable. Afghanistan's citizens know what it is they require in order to live a better life and we; I, can help them get it done. And I will.
Thanks for checking in.
"PEUX CE QUE VEUX, ALLONS-Y"
LGEN. THE HON. ROMEO DALLAIRE
LGEN. THE HON. ROMEO DALLAIRE
