Friendly fire – man I hate that term.

There’s nothing friendly about war, and there’s nothing friendly about bombs on people, no matter which side they are fighting on.

Canada’s four fallen members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry are now national symbols of this country’s heart and soul.

Watching the ceremony in Edmonton honoring their lives, four helmets sit atop their C-7 rifles – it is clear to me that although the events of Apr. 17 took place halfway around the world, Canada now has a deep scar that will need a great deal of time to heal.

Sergeant Marc Leger, 29, Corporal Ainsworth Dyer, 25, Private Richard Green, 22, and Private Nathan Smith, 27 … remember these names and remember how you felt when you first heard of their fate.

Take a minute right now and sit in silence.

Think how you would feel if your husband, son or father had been among these Canadian heroes when they needlessly met their end.

Canada has been a nation of peacekeepers for decades and it’s time we take that to heart.

Rather than sending our boys and girls off to risk death once the pot has boiled over in some foreign land, why don’t we get a little more proactive when it comes to keeping the peace?

Canadians must take a leadership role in eliminating the conditions, which lead to war in the first place.

If we could target things like oppressive foreign policies, starvation and ignorance rather than our fellow man, wouldn’t the world be a better place in which to live?

Don’t misunderstand me, growing up a base brat, I have nothing but respect for the sacrifices made not only by these four men, but indeed by everyone involved in Canada’s military.

Soldiers, their spouses and their children have each given up a lot for Canada.

They’ve more than earned the right to be respected by each and every one of us.

But this type of war benefits no one, and the same obviously goes for the acts of terror and cowardice, which sparked it in the first place.

We are all passengers on this ark called Earth.

The acts of one impact everyone else and it’s time we acknowledge this simple truth and find a way to settle our differences without the use of billion-dollar war machines and black powder.