Family calls Afghan war 'useless'

MONTREAL -- Heart-wrenching comments from relatives of a soldier killed in Afghanistan -- saying his death was pointless -- tossed the grieving family into the midst of a national debate on the war.

As his 23-year-old body was being airlifted home yesterday, the brother and sister-in-law of Pte. Jonathan Couturier lambasted the mission and said the young soldier lost his life for a cause he considered hopeless.

"That war over there, he found it a bit useless -- that they were wasting their time over there," Nicolas Couturier was quoted as saying in Le Soleil.

The comments from the Couturier family produced a chorus of sympathy -- but discordant opinions about whether they were correct.

Even within the family there were divergent opinions. Couturier's brother said the soldier considered the mission "useless," his sister-in-law said he expressed being "fed up," but his mother said he enjoyed his career choice to become a soldier.

Amongst politicians, the Bloc Quebecois agreed with family members' skepticism.

As for supporters of the mission, one prominent military booster downplayed the family's negative reaction as marginal.

"The fact is that it's totally and absolutely unique to date in the mission," retired major general Lewis MacKenzie said.