Afghan mission ending terror, Prime Minister says
OTTAWA (CUP) -- Five years after New York's World Trade Center towers were destroyed by two hijacked airplanes, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Canadian mission in Afghanistan would help end Sept. 11 “terror.”
Speaking under the vaulted ceilings of the Hall of Honour, the central hallway of Parliament, Harper emphasized the link between Sept. 11 and the Afghanistan mission by inviting the families of soldiers and of Canadians killed in the attack to hear him speak.
“The 24 Canadians who lost their lives on this day five years ago, their family members remind us that they were real people with real lives, lives that were cut short deliberately so, by a murderous act of terrorism,” Harper said.
He recalled his memories of that morning, watching the towers collapse on television with his wife.
“As the enormity of the events began to sink in, I turned to her and said: ‘This will change the course of history,' and so it has,” he said.
Since Sept. 11, people have died in terrorist attacks Bali, Indonesia in 2002 and 2005, in Madrid, Spain on March 11, 2004 and in London on July 7, 2005.
“The targets and tactics were different in every case, but the objective is always the same: to kill, maim and terrify as many people as possible, not in the name of any idealistic causes, but because of an ideology of hatred,” he said.
Harper appealed to moral values and the fight against terrorism as the foundation of Canada's mission in Afghanistan.
“Because of this war on terrorism, people of the world have come together to offer a better vision of the future for all humanity. For this vision to take hold, the menace of terror must be confronted,” he said.
He said the mission in Afghanistan was launched by the United Nations “to deal with the source of terror and to end once and for all the brutal regime that horribly mistreated its own people while coddling terrorists.”
The work of Canadians in Afghanistan is leading to a safer world, and making them heroes, he said.
Speaking under the vaulted ceilings of the Hall of Honour, the central hallway of Parliament, Harper emphasized the link between Sept. 11 and the Afghanistan mission by inviting the families of soldiers and of Canadians killed in the attack to hear him speak.
“The 24 Canadians who lost their lives on this day five years ago, their family members remind us that they were real people with real lives, lives that were cut short deliberately so, by a murderous act of terrorism,” Harper said.
He recalled his memories of that morning, watching the towers collapse on television with his wife.
“As the enormity of the events began to sink in, I turned to her and said: ‘This will change the course of history,' and so it has,” he said.
Since Sept. 11, people have died in terrorist attacks Bali, Indonesia in 2002 and 2005, in Madrid, Spain on March 11, 2004 and in London on July 7, 2005.
“The targets and tactics were different in every case, but the objective is always the same: to kill, maim and terrify as many people as possible, not in the name of any idealistic causes, but because of an ideology of hatred,” he said.
Harper appealed to moral values and the fight against terrorism as the foundation of Canada's mission in Afghanistan.
“Because of this war on terrorism, people of the world have come together to offer a better vision of the future for all humanity. For this vision to take hold, the menace of terror must be confronted,” he said.
He said the mission in Afghanistan was launched by the United Nations “to deal with the source of terror and to end once and for all the brutal regime that horribly mistreated its own people while coddling terrorists.”
The work of Canadians in Afghanistan is leading to a safer world, and making them heroes, he said.
