Yesterday, driving home from the office i hear on the radio that some two-thirds of Canadians want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan by 2009 even if the mission is not completed. The poll was conducted by Decima Research. Here is an excerpt from the 570 News website:

The vast majority of Canadians want this country's military mission in Afghanistan to end as scheduled in 2009, according to a new poll.

The survey by Decima Research, released Monday to The Canadian Press, found that two-thirds of respondents want Canadian troops to come home when the current mandate from Parliament expires in February 2009. Only 26 per cent of respondents believed the military mission should be extended "if that is necessary to complete our goals there."

What the???? Why not pull the troops out now and save the lives of our soldiers if the point is to show some token committment rather than to remove the Taliban and dampen islamic fundamentalism in the region ? Why wouldn't the Taliban simply go to ground and wait til 2009 to make a comeback if our committment is a political time line? Why stay at all? If we have a purpose in being there, and I for one (or one third) believe we do, then we must see it through. Otherwise, get the troops out now and we can contnue whistling past the graveyard, attempting to green the nation, while the struggle of our time washes us up on whatever shore it may.