Harpers War The Manley Solution

All the conditions for the Manley recommendation to become Harpers War Wet Dream were already made in the back rooms.

The Harper government will set the stage for a possible spring election on Canada's role in the Afghanistan war by tabling a motion as early as this week calling for an extension of the mission in line with last month's Manley report.The motion is expected to adopt the central recommendation of the panel led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley. In its report, the panel recommended extending the mission beyond February 2009, the current expiration date, provided Canada can secure more equipment and convince its allies to commit roughly 1,000 more troops.

Let's see Poland has offered to help.

Poland to share choppers in Afghanistan

The irony of the former Warsaw Pact nation now extending its mission in Afghanistan is rich indeed. Too bad they hadn't done this when the Russians were there and none of this would have been needed.

Meanwhile MacKay is off lobbying NATO.

MacKay to stress demand for 1,000 troops from NATO

And he may get them.

In a rare piece of good news, there were suggestions that the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, would provide an extra 1,000 troops.

British officials hope the extra troops will be stationed in areas of the bloodiest conflict in Kandahar in the south, but Nato defence chiefs will discuss the position at an informal summit starting today. Nato is seeking to draw together a new three-year structural plan for the country.

Rice did not disguise her concern at the scale of the threat in Afghanistan. "I do think the alliance is facing a real test here. Our populations need to understand this is not a peacekeeping mission" but rather a long-term fight against extremists, she added. "This is a different fight from what Nato was structured to do.

The messaging is the same from the White House and Harpers House; prepare for a long war.

Meanwhile the Taliban will have Pakistan's support in going back into Afghanistan to conduct their operations.

Of course Pakistan is not a member of NATO.

Pakistan Taliban declare ceasefire - spokesman

Pakistan calls truce with Taliban after secret talks
Ismail Khan, a journalist who reports on the border area for the newspaper Dawn, said both sides appeared to be respecting the truce. But he said the military's apparent decision to halt its operation against militants in south Waziristan raised questions about Pakistan's strategy in dealing with the Taliban.

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Manley Whines

On Don Newman's Politics show yesterday Newman interviewed John Manley about his recommendations to the Harprocrites about Afghanistan.Manley complained, predictably, about media coverage of the war. His example was interesting he said a press conference had been set up to show the success of a CIDA program in Kabul, but it happened the same day another Canadian soldier had been killed. He complained that this good news story then got lost while the media covered the soldiers death, his ramp ceremony and his return to Canada.

Now I won't comment on the callousness of this example. Rather I found it interesting that the good news story was Kabul, not Kandahar. We are doing little PRT work in Kandahar, mostly it is support for infrastructure needed for the troops.

Our real aid work is still occurring in the North in Kabul. So why are we in the south. Manley undermines his argument for Harpers War in the South. Instead the NDP is proven right again, we need to withdraw our troops from counter insurgency operations and move them back to the North, to defend the PRT projects that are really what we should be doing. And of course backing the malleable Karzai government in its attempts to come to a peace agreement with the Taliban and Pashtun war lords.

Mullah Naqib shakes hands with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in March, less than two months after the Kandahar elder helped free the main suspect in Glyn Berry’s death.


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