Liberals soften stand on pullout date

[GAP]

Liberals soften stand on pullout date
ALAN FREEMAN  From Wednesday's Globe and Mail June 6, 2007
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OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday opened the door to keeping Canadian troops in Afghanistan after February, 2009, but insisted they would have to be withdrawn from their current combat mission in the volatile southern region.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Dion said he wants the combat mission of Canada's 2,500 soldiers based in Kandahar to end, but said Canada could still retain troops to assist the NATO mission.

"We could have a role different from the combat mission in Kandahar that the Prime Minister would like to make interminable," Mr. Dion said in French.

Asked whether the Liberals would be willing to switch places with troops in another, presumably safer, part of Afghanistan, Mr. Dion hinted that he might back that sort of deployment.
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[vangemeren]

I had thought this was more or less the position of the Liberal party since they reorganised themselves after the leadership change? Or am I confusing it with the NDP's position?

 

[Armymedic]

No, the previous stance and Liberal motion that was defeated was for a complete pull out of all Cdn troops in after Feb 09.

Every single one...

Obviously they have been briefed that the war is going better and that the combat effort is spurring on roles like the OMLT and PRT which we can continue...you know all those huggy feel good tasks we peacekeepers should be doing.

 

[vangemeren]

Must been an off hand "unofficial" stance by an MP  when there was no coherent stance before the latest leader.

I'll add by saying that the new stance is still not good enough.

 

[midget-boyd91]

Now what are we going to hear from Mr.Layton about this? Are we going to hear accusations that the Liberals are slowly sliding towards supporting keeping soldiers in a war zone AND fighting?    The horror. :     

 

[a_majoor]

If the Taliban see Canadian politicians going soft on the mission, they will follow the Canadian Battlegroup wherever it goes and continue attacking it in the hopes of engineering a complete Canadian pullout.

 

[pbi]

Maybe thte Liberals are having an attack of corporate memory, and remembering that they signed the original ISAF agreement to stay engaged until 2011.?

Cheers