Articles found September 21, 2007
Ghostly Afghan army
TheStar.com September 20, 2007
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai worries that his country will "fall back into anarchy" if Canada pulls out its troops in 2009. That was his message to a group of Canadian journalists this week. It coincides with a blitz by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to shore up sagging public support to "finish the job" there.
But why should the departure of 2,300 Canadian troops from Kandahar region after a three-year stint trigger a crisis? Why isn't the Afghan National Army prepared to step in? When, if ever, will it be? If Karzai is so worried, why is it taking so long to build up the army?
And if the stakes are so high, why won't more of our North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners share the risks in Kandahar with us?
These are questions that should be raised in Parliament when Harper brings down the throne speech on Oct. 16. While Canada's $1.2 billion aid program ensures that we will support Afghans over the longer haul, we are being urged to re-enlist for frontline combat duty without having enough information to make a sensible decision.
The Karzai government claims to have 37,000 troops and aims for 70,000 in a year or two. The Americans insist the Afghan army is "a combat-experienced force." And NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has promised that "effective Afghan security forces would be gradually taking control" by next spring, a full year before Canada's mission draws to an end.
So why all the pressure on Canada to hang in there?
Because despite these cheery assessments, the Afghan army is nowhere close to being a credible fighting machine. Five years into its rebuilding drive, the Afghan military can field no more than 20,000 troops at any given time. They are woefully ill-equipped. They rely on the U.S. and NATO for air cover, artillery support, engineering, communications, medical help and logistics. There is a high desertion rate.
Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak says it would take up to 200,000 "well-trained and equipped" troops with "mobility and firepower" to defend the country. That is 10 times the current number. Meanwhile the army can't field one brigade of 2,300 to replace us.
Perhaps that is why retired U.S. General Barry McCaffrey has estimated it will take until the year 2020, more than a decade, to turn the Afghan military into anything resembling a real army.
Is this what Harper and Karzai have in mind, when they talk of "finishing the job" and averting "anarchy"? Are Canadians being pressed into an open-ended mission, while the Afghans rearm at a leisurely pace and our allies refuse to help? It would be good to know.
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Veterans awaiting an ombudsman
TheStar.com September 21, 2007 Sean Bruyea
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Canada 's hidden tragedy in Afghanistan, seldom reported in detail in the media, is that at least 228 Canadians have been wounded and will likely require some form of long-term assistance for their disability in the future.
This does not include psychological injuries such as post- traumatic stress disorder, which could affect 10 per cent or more of the approximately 20,000 soldiers who have served in Afghanistan since 2002. Nor the more than 200,000 veteran and widow clients already requiring assistance.
So it should come as no surprise that Canadians want to ensure the bureaucracy is indeed caring for our soldiers and their families, including the families of the fallen.
That is why the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs was created. In February, it released a unanimously endorsed report titled A Helping Hand for Veterans: A Mandate for a Veterans Ombudsman. Admirably forthright and clear in its 22 recommendations, the report calls for an "independent, impartial and effective veterans ombudsman."
Unfortunately, the transparent and accountable process Canadians have demanded and government has promised in creating the office has been virtually non-existent.
We do know the veterans ombudsman "will uphold the Veterans Bill of Rights and will review individual and systemic issues arising from it." But that document, which lists six rights already guaranteed in other statutes, omits any statement of equality in the treatment of veterans. And it fails to honour the unique sacrifices Canada's men and women in uniform have made for more than a century.
Betty Hinton, parliamentary secretary to the minister of veterans affairs, has said the Veterans Bill of Rights "is meant to be a complement. The heavy hammer is the ombudsman."
However, it appears the process to create the veterans ombudsman has abandoned the substantive recommendations contained in the committee's report. The ombudsman's office will not be legislated, nor will it have the necessary robust powers of investigation, such as the power to subpoena documents and witnesses, take testimony under oath or enter any relevant premises as required.
By contrast, all Canadian provinces except Prince Edward Island have legislated ombudsmen with these important investigative powers. And the Canada Revenue Agency has announced both a Bill of Rights and an ombudsman, neither of which was mentioned in the Conservative election platform. In sharp contrast to the Veterans Bill of Rights, the CRA Bill of Rights has 20 substantive rights, most of them new.
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Eight soldiers injured in rocket attack
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MIRANSHAH: Eight soldiers were injured Thursday when suspected pro-Taliban militants fired rockets at a checkpost in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
Troops at the Khajuri checkpost in North Waziristan responded to the attack with artillery fire, but there were no immediate reports about militant casualties, a security official said.
“Eight soldiers were injured, two of them seriously when two rockets hit their post,” he said.
Pakistan has lost around 1,000 troops since pushing forces into the tribal belt to hunt Al-Qaeda-led militants who fled the US-led invasion that toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban regime after the 9/11 attacks.
In a separate incident, suspected militants shot dead a tribesman who they said had spied on their activities in Bajaur, another tribal district on the Afghan border.
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Quitting Afghanistan early a moral betrayal, diplomats say
Mike Blanchfield CanWest News Service Thursday, September 20, 2007
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MONTREAL - Countries that pull their troops out of Afghanistan prematurely would be guilty of a moral failure, senior Canadian and United Nations diplomats warned Thursday.
"If we were to withdraw tomorrow, our allies would feel betrayed," Michel de Salaberry, Canada's new senior civilian co-ordinator for Kandahar, said in an interview. "We've said we'd stay until 2009. Morally, we have to live up to that pledge."
Over the longer term, he added: "I think we'll want to stay committed to Afghanistan, but that can take a variety of shapes."
Chris Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan and the current UN deputy there, added early withdrawal would amount to "renouncing on a mandate conferred on (Canada) by the Security Council of the UN."
"In fact," he added, "to refuse fighting the Taliban would mean we are refusing and rejecting our responsibilities, our institutions, ourselves. It would be a worldwide failure and a failure of our souls."
The tough rhetoric came at a major international conference on the future of Afghanistan, and was a direct response to the growing political opposition among some NATO_countries, including Canada and particularly Quebec, to continued military involvement in the war-torn country.
However, none of the diplomats, academics and military officials assembled here pleaded directly with Canada to stay in Afghanistan after the current commitment expires.
On Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier also warned the conference that Canada's international reputation is at risk if it doesn't meet its commitments in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Parliament must reach a "consensus" on keeping Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan beyond its original commitment of February 2009. However, this appears unlikely as the opposition Liberals are calling for an end to combat operations in the volatile southern Afghan region around Kandahar by that date, while the NDP wants the troops brought home now.
The Afghan deployment is now a sensitive issue in Quebec because the Royal 22nd Regiment from Valcartier, Que., sent 2,000 soldiers to Afghanistan last month and has already seen three killed. Polls show that about two-thirds of Quebecers oppose the military mission.
Alexander said Canada's international commitments to Afghanistan must transcend partisan politics.
"The resolutions authorizing our political mission of the UN, authorizing ISAF, authorizing military action in Afghanistan - military, development, counter-narcotics and otherwise - are all commitments made by the international community, regardless of partisan issues," he told reporters.
"Canada has to see itself, as other countries have to see themselves, as an important member of that group, which collectively has a responsibility."
Martin Howard, NATO's assistant secretary general of operations, said Canada's efforts and sacrifice are hugely appreciated in Afghanistan. But more needs to be done.
"The key word here is long term. The commitment of the international community, NATO amongst it, for the long term is absolutely vital for the Afghanistan's future," he said. "It is not something that can be sorted out in a few months or even a few years."
Meanwhile, in a speech to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion attacked Harper's handling of Afghanistan as an "appalling example of a foreign policy blunder."
"Mr. Harper has given Canada a foreign policy that draws its inspiration from the American right," Dion said.
But one tough critic of the western intervention in Afghanistan made an impassioned plea for the United States and its NATO allies to stay the course in Afghanistan. Barnett Rubin, a political science professor at New York University, argued Thursday that many critics of the international efforts in Afghanistan are influenced by animosity towards an unpopular U.S. President George W. Bush.
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Afghan General Cautious on Peace Talks
Friday September 21, 2007 7:01 AM By BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press Writers
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BAZARAK, Afghanistan (AP) - An anti-Taliban general who fought alongside U.S. forces during the 2001 invasion predicted Thursday that a proposal for peace talks will be snubbed by the Islamic militia's hard-liners and foreign fighters but may entice some insurgent factions.
Gen. Bismillah Khan, now chief of the Afghan general staff, said efforts to bring about negotiations would be a ``long and complex process.''
His comments, made during a visit by the most senior U.S. military chief for the region, appeared to reflect a more cautious view by some in the Afghan military toward a push by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to open talks with the Taliban.
A battle between police and insurgents, meanwhile, killed 20 suspected militants and four officers as violence spread to the normally quiet northwest. Militant attacks are mostly in the south and east, although this year has seen a few suicide bombings in the north.
On Friday, Afghan police reported that a bomb attack in the capital Kabul had killed a French soldier and caused many civilian casualties.
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French soldier, 40 rebels killed in Afghanistan on Peace Day
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KABUL (AFP) — A suicide attacker killed a French soldier in Kabul and about 40 Taliban rebels were killed elsewhere in Afghanistan on Friday as bloodshed marred the United Nations' International Day of Peace.
An Afghan official said meanwhile that six civilians had been killed earlier in the week in an airstrike by NATO-led forces during a major operation against the Islamic extremist fighters.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, the first inside the heavily barricaded capital in three weeks.
The French military, which has around 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance force (ISAF), confirmed that its soldiers were struck while on patrol and that one died.
Eight Afghan civilians were injured in the blast, ISAF said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his condolences to all the victims, adding in a statement that he was "more determined than ever to continue the fight against terrorism."
Around 168 international soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year -- the bloodiest since the insurgent Taliban were removed from government in late 2001. A Dutch soldier was killed Thursday in the south.
France has lost 12 troops since deploying to the country.
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Bernier drums up support
TheStar.com September 20, 2007 Allan Woods OTTAWA BUREAU
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MONTREAL–Canada risks losing "all credibility" in the eyes of the world if it withdraws from the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said last night.
Speaking at the opening of a conference looking at the country's involvement in Afghanistan, Bernier said pulling out would amount to Canada going "back on its word" to the Afghan people and to its NATO allies.
When Parliament resumes next month, Afghanistan is expected to dominate discussion.
The Conservative government has promised to let MPs vote before deciding to extend the combat mission and Bernier's speech last night was part of a public relations push to win support for continuing the fight against the Taliban in Kandahar province.
"Canada cannot, without losing all credibility in the international arena ... abandon such a crucial mission," he said in a speech. "We also cannot simply abandon the Afghan people to their fate. To do so would jeopardize all the development work and security building that has been done on the ground."
Canada has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
Speaking to Quebecers, whose interest has been heightened since the arrival in Kandahar of the francophone Vandoos, Bernier said "Quebecers finish the job they started" and the job in Afghanistan is not yet done.
The speech appears to be part of a two-pronged strategy that has the Conservative government trying to build support within Canada while also pressuring the international community to take some of the burden off Canada's shoulders.
In The Hague yesterday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and his Dutch counterpart, Eimert van Middelkoop, said the NATO military alliance must do a better job of convincing other countries to move into southern Afghanistan. In the Netherlands, as in Canada, there is tremendous pressure on the government to pull its 2,000 troops out of Uruzgan province once the country's mission mandate expires next year. In both cases, critics cite the high casualty rates and varied progress being made on the ground.
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Stéphane Dion is Not an International Leader
September 20, 2007
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Only days after suffering devastating defeats in three by-elections, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion spoke about Canadian foreign policy today in Montreal.
This is the same Stéphane Dion who has yet to visit Canadian troops in Afghanistan, voted to kill his own party’s anti-terrorism law, and recently adopted the cause of accused terrorist Omar Khadr.
Stéphane Dion is clearly out of touch with the concerns of Canadian families and taxpayers.
While Stéphane Dion is failing in tests on his leadership, Canada’s New Government is getting things done under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper by taking real action on the world stage, including:
Reaffirming Canada’s Arctic sovereignty by strengthening the Canadian Forces;
Demonstrating leadership at the APEC Summit in Sydney by promoting a balanced, realistic plan to fight climate change; and
Committing $1.2 billion until 2011 to rebuild Afghanistan, and help Afghan police, judges and prosecutors.
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American military lawyer rips Canadian hypocrisy on Omar Khadr
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OTTAWA - Canada has been an international leader on the plight of child soldiers but is now showing "reckless indifference" to one of its own, the American military lawyer for Omar Khadr said Thursday.
In a speech to law students at the University of Ottawa, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler eviscerated the U.S. military commissions set up to try prisoners of the Afghan conflict. "Omar Khadr is facing a show trial in front of a kangaroo court," said Kuebler, dressed in his blue U.S. officer's uniform
But he spared Canadian governments past and present none of his outrage for refusing any effort to bring Khadr, a Canadian citizen, back to Canada for trial.
Kuebler was appointed by the U.S. military to represent Khadr, a 15-year-old when he was accused of killing an American special forces officer in Afghanistan in 2002. He faces a range of charges, including murder and aiding the enemy, for allegedly throwing a grenade during a firefight.
Khadr, who turned 21 this week, is believed to be the last detainee from a Western nation still being held in Guantanamo, the U.S. prisoner camp on Cuba's southern peninsula.
Countries including Australia, Denmark, France, Germany and Spain have secured the release of their citizens, while Britain has even won the freedom of non-citizen permanent residents.
Khadr's age makes his case doubly perplexing, said Kuebler.
"Every civilized legal system in the world recognizes the distinction between adults and children for purposes of criminal prosecution and punishment," he said. "Not the military commissions. One size fits all."
Evidence before a U.S. civil court suggested Khadr was as young as 10 when his father, known al Qaida operative Ahmad Khadr, recruited and indoctrinated him to the cause, said Kuebler.
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