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Canada's Afghanistan veterans confront the cost of a "forgotten war"

CBC's Murray Brewster examines the gap between public remembrance and experiences that soldiers, a photographer and a translator cannot leave behind.

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CBC News: The National Story of November 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of CBC News: The National's most watched videos since yesterday, with 51,854 views.

Canada's forgotten war: Afghanistan 25 years later

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0:50Bruce Moncur recounts the severe brain injury he suffered when a warplane mistakenly fired on Canadian troops.
2:26Brewster reports that major Afghanistan anniversaries passed without large federal public commemorations.
3:41Historian Sean Maloney questions Canada's reluctance to examine and discuss the war.
4:14Photographer Louie Palu describes how memories of combat continue to affect him.
7:12Translator Abdul Razaq Khan describes the danger he faced and fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban's return.
9:43Matt Snoddon emphasizes the war's lasting cost for those who served and the generations that follow.

"The war is never over for me. I can hear that machine gun in my head all the time," photographer Louie Palu tells CBC's Murray Brewster.

That continuing burden runs through CBC News: The National's report, "Canada's forgotten war: Afghanistan 25 years later." Veterans and others who worked through the conflict describe enduring memories, while Brewster asks why the mission has slipped from Canada's public conversation.

Retired corporal Bruce Moncur recalls the severe brain injury he suffered during Operation Medusa when a warplane mistakenly fired on Canadian troops. "I just remember being tossed in the air like a rag doll," he says.

Brewster also visits the Kandahar cenotaph inside National Defence Headquarters. According to CBC's report, 158 Canadian soldiers died in the war, yet the federal government held no large public commemorations for the milestone anniversaries falling in 2026. Historian Sean Maloney asks: "Why are we afraid to talk about it?"

Archive footage of Donald Trump criticizing NATO allies' contributions provides another point of contrast with the experiences Brewster's interviewees recount. The report's central question is not simply how Canada remembers those killed, but how it acknowledges what survivors still carry.

Former Canadian press translator Abdul Razaq Khan describes the danger his work brought and his flight from Afghanistan after the Taliban's return in 2021. "No one leaves their country happily," he says.

Retired sergeant Matt Snoddon closes with the consequences that outlast a deployment: "We can't ignore the fact that there is a price to pay now and through the next generations."

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