Christmas In Kabul

I just watched some of Rick Mercer’s Christmas In Kabul, which is charming and entertaining in a patriotic way. Rick Mercer is one of the nation’s most popular comedians (among those who haven’t gone south to the US), and he’s spending a few days with Canadian peacekeepers in Afghanistan. I was struck by a few things:

• The age of the average soldier, which seems to be at least thirty. After watching hundreds of war movies, I’m always under the impression that the average age of our soldiers is about twenty. Apparently that’s not the case.
• So many of the people in the our armed forces are from the Maritimes. Presumably this is due to high employment in that part of the country?
• Having watched plenty of on-the-ground newscasts from Iraq, it’s striking how different the Canadian soldiers seem to the Americans. The Canadians seem so much more humble, and seem to honoured to be providing a valuable service to Afghanistan.