Musharraf: Canadians 'cry and shout' Over Coffins

Pakistan's president Musharraf is making the rounds in North America this week not only to meet with world leaders but to sell his new book In the Line of Fire. He won't be selling many books in Canada after his insulting remarks about our soldiers that he made in a CBC interview on Tuesday, however.

Musharraf brushed off the suggestion that his government was endangering Canadians and other troops in Afghanistan by not doing enough to root out the Taliban and al-Qaeda and their sympathizers.

"We have suffered 500 casualties," he said. "Canadians may have suffered four or five."
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Musharraf said any nation, such as Canada, that enters a war-torn area must be prepared to suffer casualties or get out of the operation.

"You suffer two dead and you cry and shout all around the place that there are coffins," he said. "Well, we have had 500 coffins."

Since deploying in Afghanistan in 2001, 36 Canadian troops and one diplomat have been killed.

This is the same president who admittedly weighed his options after 9/11, including resisting the United State's calls to either fight the Taliban or be bombed 'back to the stone age'. Musharraf knew his country would most likely be obliterated if he didn't cooperate so he acquiesced. So, for this president to now claim bravery in that war while mocking Canadians smacks of pure hypocrisy.

He continued with his attack on Canada's military:

He dismissed the suggestion that Canadian soldiers could help alongside the Pakistani military in his country, made by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor recently.

"Nobody comes on our side," he said. "I would not like to challenge the Canadian troops, but I can assure you, our troops are more effective and we have more experience at war, and this shows a lack of trust in Pakistan."

Considering that Pakistan was only created in 1947 and that Canada's military fought in WWI and WWII before that time, it seems that Musharraf could stand to have a history lesson about our country. And, if he wonders why we in the west don't trust him, perhaps he should review his own country's history as it relates to the Taliban and terrorism.

Further, if Canadians choose to 'cry and shout' over our dead soldiers, it's none of Musharraf's damn business. We lost millions tens of thousands of troops during the two world wars and many others in several conflicts since then, including the Korean war, and we earned the right long ago to mourn each and every soldier who dies during wartime. That fact makes us even more sensitive to our losses. When his country has lost as many soldiers as we have, maybe then he can come back and lecture us about what he thinks is a proper reaction to our fellow countrymen who have died.