Shooting pool with a string

I try to support our troops and I think I do a better job of it when I complain than does the Wear-red-on-Friday hoard who gloss over details for the rah-rah.

We are constantly being told by the military and civilian leaders of out country that we are winning in Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the run and civilians are flooding to our side. The numbers do not seem to bear that out.

In 2007, 232 NATO troops were killed. In 2008, the number is 193... but we are still in August. Since Canada joined the fray in 2002, the NATO soldier death toll has gone from 69 to ???.

I am not so sure that the relatives of the 93 Canadian soldiers , one diplomat and two aid workers killed in the deserts so far away are really consoled by the rhetoric of our leaders.