Tim Knight writes the regular media column, Watching the Watchdog, for HuffPost Canada. As I write, the brutish old pro licks his lips, girds his l...

The historic Christmas adage "peace to those of goodwill" takes on an attractive ring for a country that once built its international reputation on fighting to preserve peace in troubled regions. It's time for the military thinkers to come to terms with the reality that Canadians will remain a peaceful people who desire that same blessing for people around the world.

I was in a meeting recently in which an MP accused the government and Stephen Harper of being "evil" and "the enemy." I have heard the Prime Minister use that language himself on more than one occasion. The hurling of insults across the aisle of Parliament has now become a pandemic -- no respect, no dignity, no results.

I don't think you can know what it is like to make a decision until you have had to make that decision yourself. I don't know what it would be like to pull the trigger of a gun and take a life. I don't know what it would be like to flee my country as a refugee or a political dissident.

The real success of the United Nations can never be measured by what it's done or failed to do. I hearken back to former Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold's observation: "The UN was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell."

Western leaders have repeatedly justified military intervention as a means for providing security for community-building development efforts. Perhaps it's time we revisited that construct.

Now that the exit from Afghanistan is in sight, how have Canadians upheld the other end of our military activity in maintaining peace in the troubled regions of the world? In two words: we haven't.