Two Thousand what? Stand back while we kick some Taliban ass and re-write the book on how to shut down terrorist scumbags.
Posted on 02/22/2008 1:53:47 PM PST by Rikstir
The 2,500 Canadian troops deployed in south Afghanistan are due to leave within four years under a proposal likely to be passed by parliament.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who leads a minority Conservative government, unveiled the plan under pressure from the Liberal opposition.
The Liberals were pushing for an even earlier withdrawal and for Canada's troops to play a non-combat role.
At least 78 Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
The new schedule sees all soldiers leaving the violent Kandahar region by the end of 2011.
"It seems clear that we have moved significantly toward the kind of bipartisan consensus that can be presented to parliament for ratification," Mr Harper said.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion said the plan, which will go to a parliamentary vote in the next few weeks, met 95% of his party's demands.
"We welcome the new motion, which is based on the Liberal motion," he added.
Mr Harper has always supported extending Canada's military mission in Afghanistan and resisted opposition pressure to end it in 2009, when the mission's current deadline expires.
However, Canada's likely withdrawal may put further pressure on Nato's under-strength forces in Afghanistan, analysts believe.
So liberals say that we created Taliban Afghanistan because we left after they drove the Soviets out, yet they claim that we should do the same again?
From my point of view this is another example of a nation airing their dirty laundry in public. Setting a fixed term of deployment allows the enemy to plan around that fact. It also has the ability to persuade other nations to impose a similar timetable, so the Taliban just need to stay low until 2012 and they get their country back.
Taliban were created by Pakistan’s Musharraf to essentially maintain control over a failed state on his border. They follow an interpretation of islam similar to that of Saudi Arabia, that of Wahabiism. They seem a bit like Pol Pots Khmer Rouge in that they are a regressive, rural power.
Canada wants to drop out of a defensive alliance with us because they suffered a 0.5% KIA rate? Pathetic. Are the rest of our NATIO allies that weak?
Canada war ping
The media spin on this story is backwards.
Canada’s original committment was until 2007. The Minority Conservative government has managed to push an extention through twice—to 2009, and now, until 2011, and even that, is not a “hard” deadline—stating some kind of a date was the only way our Conservative Minority Government was going to get the extention passed—also, keep in mind, that the current agreement with the Afghanistan Government (The Afghanistan Compact) ends in 2011.
Also remember that this article comes from Auntie which has its own agenda.
Harper again proves to be a better parliamentarian than Dion. He maneuvered Dion into doing what Harper wants while allowing Dion to think that it was a Grit victory.
Harper set it up so that the Grits could not afford to use this issue to provoke an election and at the same time brought down a budget that the opposition also could not afford to oppose.
Remember that in a parliamentary system either vote would have been a vote of confidence. If the Tories had lost on either issue it would have brought down the government and forced the Governeor General to drop the writ.
"Politics is the art of the possible"
-- Otto von Bismark
Canada's KIA rate is larger on a per capita basis than any of the other NATO allies.
Canadian Forces are in the hottest theatre in Afghanistan, with robust ROE and without the kind of caveats that are keeping the forces of allies like France and Germany in the relatively less active north.
The Canadian Conservative government wants to finish the job. It is a minority government. The Liberals and NDP want to leave with the job unfinished.
Harper has maneuvered the Grits into going along with a two year extension after their leader had proclaimed that he was prepared to fight an election on his position that the mission NOT be extended.
Look to your own liberals if you want to see something "pathetic", one of whom is about to win your presidency.
Some nefarious scoundrel should find a virus that attacks opium poppies; once that jobs done everyone can leave.
Thanks for the ping, exg.
“Harper has maneuvered the Grits into going along with a two year extension after their leader had proclaimed that he was prepared to fight an election on his position that the mission NOT be extended.
Look to your own liberals if you want to see something “pathetic”, one of whom is about to win your presidency.”
It is good to hear the conservatives in Canada are fighting to stay in Afghanistan until the job is done. And while our liberals are indeed pathetic, none of the leading Dem candidates is advocating abandoning that country.
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