Stay the course to 2014
Calgary Herald Comments (3)
Despite the difficulties of quelling rising violence in Afghanistan, the international community -- pushed by U.S. General David Petraeus -- renewed its commitment to the struggling South Asian nation last week, something which ought to prompt a rethink here at home.
NATO members attending the International Conference on Afghanistan in Kabul shelved plans to start allowing local security forces to take over provinces by the end of the year out of concern that the Afghans are unprepared. Rather than admit defeat, NATO has now set the end of 2014 as the date by which the Afghan police and military will be expected to assume responsibility for security countrywide. As a corollary to these plans, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will have to keep troops in the country longer to damage the Taliban sufficiently to force them to the bargaining table.
Canadians need to give serious thought to keeping our own military contingent on the battlefield. Afghans' hopes and dreams, along with the future stability of South Asia, are too precious for Canada to throw in the towel next summer.
Pessimists are too quick to argue the same old refrain that the war in Afghanistan is irretrievably lost. The Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai will never be strong enough to stand on its own and the Taliban
will never concede when they can just harass the ISAF and wait for the inevitable withdrawal. Better to get out as soon as possible
rather than fight on.
But hope has yet to die for Afghanistan and the new plans put forward at the donors' gathering last week offer a way forward.
Tossing out the 2011 withdrawal was badly overdue. It served no purpose other than to offer comfort to the enemy by signalling that the coalition lacked the stomach to continue the fight. By establishing criteria such as a handover of security responsibilities to the Afghan army and police, NATO demonstrates that it will not leave until the job is done.
Even if Canadians would prefer not to keep soldiers in Afghanistan beyond the summer of 2011, ISAF's fresh efforts will afford us plenty of opportunities to pull our own weight. The Afghan National Army and police are in desperate need of training and supplies while most of the country is sorely lacking infrastructure to spur growth and confidence in the authorities in Kabul.
Whatever form Canadian assistance takes over the next four years will be welcomed. Many Afghans recall too well what life was like under Taliban rule and are anxious not to waste the chance for a fresh start under NATO tutelage.
Earlier this year, a poll commissioned by the BBC revealed that almost three-quarters of Afghans were optimistic about their country's future. That is higher than similar polls in the wealthy west. There can be no better sign that the 155 Canadians who have given their lives for that future have not done so in vain.
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