War in Afghanistan

Apparently 4 more Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the total to 16. Which is 16 more than I'd like to see, quite frankly.

Man, so often I intend to blog about stuff like how nice it is out today and how it's finally starting to feel like spring and how excited I am to travel in a couple of weeks, and then I read the headlines.

The war in Afghanistan is a tricky one...trickier than Iraq at least. Yes, the Taliban was a horribly repressive regime, yes they were fostering terrorist groups, but I feel like everyone signed up as a kneejerk reaction to 9/11. That said, the Afghanis have gotten the short end of history's stick... over and over again. Their geographic location has put them in the midst of several long-running wars and international squabbles. Their economy is shot and from what I understand, most of the country is in roughly in a state of anarchy run by regional warlords.
From Wikipedia:

"The main obstacle to eradicating poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is the US forces' need for the warlords and their forces in hunting terrorists. The warlords are the major culprits in poppy cultivation, but are also highly useful to the US forces in scouting, providing local intelligence, keeping their own territories clean from Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents, and even taking part in military operations - all for money. This also contributes to the lack of central government's real authority in provinces and discourages farmers from growing grain and fruit as they did for centuries previously."

So while I don't support destroying the infrastructure and then bowing out, I don't quite understand what Canada (and the other Western militaries) are doing there. If their plan is to seek out every last Taliban member and insurgent and exterminate them, it's going to be a long, costly (and I would argue, infeasible) process. So what's the solution then? I don't know. I'm not saying that Canadians and other countries SHOULDN'T help Afghanistan, I just question whether a military presence is really the way to go...