Moncur and many soldiers like him take a pragmatic view of their service in Afghanistan:В they had a job to do - keeping the Taliban at bay - and they did it. I never thought the Taliban stranglehold on Kandahar was going to be broken for that long.'Д«ruce Moncur (right) in southern Afghanistan in 2006. 'I honestly thought it was going to happen. 'It was an inevitability,' said Moncur, who suffered a major head wound in 2006В at the onset of Operation Medusa, the biggest battle foughtВ by Canadians during the war. What was it all for?В It's a question that, over the past decade, has been answered with the claim that Canada's interventionВ empoweredВ Afghans to choose their own destiny.Д«ut for some former soldiers, fatalism has taken over. The hardened resolve andВ patient, wait-and-seeВ attitude shared byВ the 40,000 Canadians troops who served in Afghanistan showed cracks here and there on social media this week. He's not the only one asking those questions. 'So, you're thinking, 'What did we do for 20 years? What did we do there for the whole time that we were there?'' heВ said.

Ten years later, he is left with a sense of dismay - and futility. Guevremont recalled being asked by locals to respond to a report of a rocket strapped to the underside of a bridge - only to discover thatВ he'd been led into a minefield. The city and its surrounding region was their spiritual home, birthplace andВ first seat of power, a place from which they projectedВ their own brutal version of IslamВ in the 1990s.ДЄnalysis Biden calls a halt to America's war in Afghanistan - but it's a long way from over The TalibanВ desperately wanted control ofВ Kandahar City, the second largest in Afghanistan,В and spilled a lot of their own blood trying to get there - mostly with the Canadians standing in the way. 'It's never going to end'ДЇollowing up on their victory inВ Panjwaii,В Taliban insurgents reportedlyВ penetrated Kandahar City late in the week. The Taliban - the enemy thatВ Canadian soldiersВ managed to keep at bay but never quite defeat -В swept through Panjwaii last weekend, handing Afghan Army troops a significant defeat and delivering a major psychological blow in the wake of the American withdrawal. Did we win? Canadians who served in Afghanistan reflect on the prospects for peaceДЄgainst an often-unseen enemy, they fought for the place over and over again throughout the five-year combat mission, which formally ended a decade ago this week.

Shadow of war the fall