With All Due Respect Mr. President. War in Itself is a Senseless Act of Violence

President Obama paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan recently, hoping to meet with Afghan President Karzai, but as it turned out, only a phone call was possible.

But he did visit with soldiers, and spoke of one battalion that had just lost six of it's members, through what he referred to as a "sensless act of violence".

It is a war. What in a war would be considered a sensible act of violence?

Violence is not a sensible act, it is a reactionary one. The reaction to anger or fear. It can be both offensive and defensive.

And if you shoot at people, there is a reasonable expectation that they will shoot back at you.

I remember Rick Hillier once calling car bombers cowards. When you are being bombarded with the firepower of the U.S. and other NATO countries, you use what is available to you. It is preservation and opposition to an invasion.

This war has reached such levels of inhumanity that we can no longer separate the enemy from the ally. The Karzai government, which has benefited from an enormous transfer of wealth from the West, has given little in exchange.

We have asked for no accountability and therefore have received none.

We live in a society where children are held in the utmost regard. When one is abducted the Nation holds it's breath. When they are victimized we rise up in anger, demanding that those who would do harm to a child are dealt with severely.

And yet we ask our soldiers to act as silent witnesses to the rape and torture of children.

And we justify it because it is war. Our soldiers are coming home broken and we wonder why.

WikiLeaks has provided us with a window of opportunity. We have been invited to play an active role in determining the direction of our involvement in Afghanistan.

We can no longer give our government a blank cheque to feed rampant corruption and brutality.

It's time to rethink Afghanistan.