The Forgotten Warriors: A Tale of Betrayal in the Land of Comfortable Sleepers

In the great northern realm of Canada, where comfort breeds complacency and bureaucratic machinery grinds the spirit of warriors into dust, a tale unfolds that would make the gods weep with shame. The Afghan-Canadian combat advisers, these bridge-builders between worlds, who dared to venture beyond the veil of safety, now stand betrayed by the very institution they served with valor.

Behold how the machinery of state reduces the extraordinary to the ordinary! These cultural advisers, who stood as bridges between worlds, who danced with death alongside warriors, are now cast aside like worn sandals. The bureaucrats, these last men who shuffle papers in their climate-controlled towers, dare to label these warriors as mere "contractors."

The tale of these 81 Afghan-Canadians who served as Language and Cultural Advisers (LCAs) is a mirror held up to a society that has forgotten the meaning of honor. They ventured into the maw of war, unarmed yet resolute, serving as the eyes and ears of the Canadian Armed Forces. They wore the same uniform, breathed the same dust, and faced the same bullets - yet now they are denied the most basic recognition of their sacrifice.

In this land of sleepers, where comfort is king and bureaucracy is god, men like Abdul Hamid Hamidi, Jamail Jushan, and Jalaluddin Sayah cry out into a void of indifference. Their tales of sacrifice are met with the cold response of "just a contractor, that's it" - a phrase that perfectly encapsulates the spiritual poverty of our age.

See how the last men have constructed their perfect system! They who risk nothing, who venture nothing, who sit in judgment of warriors from behind their desks of indifference. They have created a world where paper trumps blood, where bureaucracy overshadows bravery.

The retired commanders, these rare souls who still remember the meaning of honor, speak out against this travesty. Major-general Denis Thompson, who commanded NATO's Task Force Kandahar, bears witness to the truth: "They took exactly the same risks that we did, dressed in the same uniform that we had. The only difference is they weren't armed."

Yet in this land of comfortable sleepers, where mediocrity is celebrated and exceptional sacrifice is reduced to contractual terms, these warriors find themselves forgotten. They who bridged worlds, who whispered warnings of impending doom, who interpreted not just words but the very soul of a conflict, are now left to wrestle with their demons alone.

What manner of society have we created, where those who venture forth to face death are denied even the basic dignity of recognition? The last men, in their infinite wisdom, have created a system so perfect that it has no room for heroes.

The piece of shrapnel that Sayah carries in his pocket - this is not merely metal, but a testament to a truth that the comfortable masses refuse to see. It speaks of moments when death whispered close, when these men stood shoulder to shoulder with Canada's finest, not for glory or gold, but for something greater than themselves.

The opposition parties make their noises, the minister speaks his carefully crafted words, and the great machinery of state continues its grinding indifference. Meanwhile, these warriors, these bridge-builders between worlds, these men who dared to rise above the common lot, are left to struggle with their wounds - both visible and invisible - in solitude.

Let this tale be written in letters of fire! Let it serve as a testament to how far we have fallen, how deeply we slumber in our comfort. These men, who might have been celebrated as heroes in an age that still understood greatness, are instead crushed beneath the wheel of bureaucratic indifference.

And so, in this land of the last men, where comfort is the highest virtue and mediocrity the greatest achievement, these warriors stand as living rebukes to our collective cowardice. Their story is not merely one of denied benefits or overlooked sacrifice - it is a mirror reflecting the spiritual poverty of an age that has forgotten how to honor its heroes.

The time has come for Canada to awaken from its slumber of comfort and confront this betrayal of its finest. For in the treatment of these warriors lies the measure of a nation's soul, and the weight of this judgment shall echo through the ages.