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These are valid concerns. As we have written before, it is important that Canada’s troops operate only within the confines of their mandate. True, the government was not obliged to hold a debate and vote before deploying the troops, but having done so, it should honour its commitment to the House and the Canadian people. This is, and should remain, a non-combat training mission, at least until the current mission expires next month. Any new role for Canada can be considered at that time.

In the meantime, however, it is also important that Canadians understand what our soldiers are doing there. “Non-combat” does not mean “risk-free.” Even if our troops are not deployed at the centre of the action, they are certainly engaged in a high-risk mission inside a war zone. The fog of war extends far further than just the narrowest possible conception of the front line.

Put simply, thousands of frightened and heavily armed men are moving about, often in the dark of night, in full knowledge that there are thousands of other heavily armed men nearby, set on killing them. Panic will set in; mistakes will be made; people will die. This is an unavoidable feature of war, and has ever been so. Modern wars, at least as fought by the West, have reduced the casualty rate to a tiny fraction of what was considered normal even a generation ago. But there never was a casualty-free war.