It's one of those things that everyone is asking themselves but nobody wants to openly say.

While Hamilton is sending the largest contingent of soldiers off to war since we helped pull down Nazi Germany, who isn't wondering if they'll all make it back safely?

The fact is, they're marching off to take part in a low-intensity war in Afghanistan that has intensified dramatically.

A few short years ago, the Taliban appeared to be almost a spent force.

Now, together with their warlord allies and foreign fighters from across the Islamic world, they're showing themselves to be as resolute and ruthless as ever.

A spectacular prison break in Kandahar, a daring ambush of French paratroopers, bold assaults on American army bases, and the ever present, ever deadly roadside bombs and suicide attacks are the stuff of daily headlines and a growing allied casualty count that now includes 93 Canadian soldiers.

At least nobody can say that the 45 local reservists who are heading into this maelstrom don't know what they're getting into.

They all volunteered for the mission.

They trained for it with full-time regular soldiers for several months.

And, at the end of their training, they were all given a final chance to decline the deployment.

Obviously, they've voted with their boots.

Of course, there's never any way of knowing with absolute certainty what the deep motivations are behind people's actions, including our own.

Presumably, these and other part-time soldiers across Canada have signed on for a mixed bag of personal reasons and group dynamics.

But whether they're responding to a quest for excitement and adventure, a sense of duty and patriotism, or a desire to test themselves in the ultimate theatre of fear, we owe them our deepest gratitude.

On the eve of their departure, it's worth repeating that this is a war eminently worth fighting.

As we approach the seventh anniversary of 9/11, we should remind ourselves it was the Taliban who harboured, supported, and refused to give up al-Qaeda, the xenophobic organization that launched 9/11 and other horrendous terrorist attacks.

In response, the Taliban government, alarmingly primitive and brutally repressive, was overthrown by a U.S.- led coalition.

Canada stayed to help provide security and humanitarian aid as part of a UN-authorized, NATO-led international force that is trying to stabilize a country that has been ravaged by war for 30 years.

Whether you believe, as some do, that the war against terrorism is actually World War Three by another name, it's clear that Afghanistan is the cockpit in a wide-ranging conflict between theocratic extremism and liberal tolerance.

It's the dark ages versus the global village, fanatical convictions versus human values.

And it's not the kind of knock-down, go-for-the-jugular war the western world traditionally excels at.

It's an unconventional struggle against an elusive enemy who has no obvious strategic objectives the loss of which would cripple his war effort.

It's a classic guerrilla war complete with porous borders over which the enemy can seek refuge and funnel supplies and recruits through.

For Canada and its allies, winning doesn't just mean defeating the enemy in the field, it means drilling wells and building schools, hospitals and roads.

That's the mission the 45 part-time soldiers from Hamilton have volunteered for.

Let's hope and pray they and their fellow comrades all return home safely

But let's also send them off with the assurance that the war they're going to is no less honourable than the last one Hamiltonians marched off en masse to fight.

Andrew Dreschel's commentary appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

adreschel@thespec.com

905-526-3495