The real reason that Canadians are in Afghanistan is because it is the right thing to do. Canadian troops (JTF2) were there alongside of the Americans, from the very beginning. The Canadian involvement is summarized at the site below. In early 2002 Canada had the third largest western military force in the region, behind the US and the UK. Canada also has suffered the second highest number of casualties of the Coalition forces in Afghanistan, after the US.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/af...an/canada.html
As for the name calling, there was quite a lot of that going in both directions. George Bush gave a nice description of American – Canadian relations when he stated that we are not friends, but are family.
Note that the deployment of the Canadian led multi-national brigade in Kandahar has allowed the US to reduce their troop strength in Afghanistan by a brigade.
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Originally posted by RHClarke
Sucking up to GWB - maybe, but it is a lot better than calling our trusted neighbour "bastards" or "morons" - which essentially closed the borders to beef, and tariffed the hell out of softwood.
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Softwood lumber was one of the first things that GWB did after he took office, long before 9/11 and the name calling. It was a direct result of the tens of millions of dollars the US lumber industry spent greasing the palms of American politicians. The banning of Canadian beef imports led to a sharp increase in the price of beef in the US and a windfall in profits to US beef producers. The American beef industry has being lobbing to keep Canadian beef out of the US because they like their higher profits. Its all about money, and not name calling.