In the wake of the September 11th attacks, Canadian airports accepted 255 trans-Atlantic flights diverted from American airspace. Canadians opened up their homes, community centres, arenas, wallets, and hearts to take in over 40,000 stranded passengers.
In his address to Congress following the attacks, Bush thanked countries as diverse as Great Britain, South Korea, Australia, France, Germany, Israel, India, Pakistan, Japan, Egypt, Mexico, and El Salvador for their support in the wake of the attacks.
You'd think that as he was thanking countries for their assistance in Afghanistan, he might want to remember Canada.
You would, of course, be wrong.
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George W. Bush today appealed to NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan and remove restrictions on those already fighting there – but never mentioned the Canadian contribution as he heaped praise on the alliance.
In telling the world that the Afghans have "a lot of friends" in the world, Bush lauded contributions made by such players as Bulgaria, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Iceland and Norway and he mentioned the efforts of the Dutch and the British who are engaged in the most intense fighting in south along with Canadians.
Canada has maintained a force of 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2003, the third largest force after the British and the Americans. Canada's JTF2 Special Forces were deployed immediately in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
44 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan, the second largest total for any nation. Five of those killed were killed by friendly fire from United States Air Force pilots.
And yet, again, George Bush fails to metion the Canadian contribution.
Not that I expect anything different from him.