Canada Should Avoid Setting
the Unsound Precedent in Afghanistan

By: Sharif Ghalib
Toronto, September 25, 2007

The debate over the future of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan appears to be transcending the allure of public opinion within the domestic arena in Canada.

While polls on whether to stay course with the mission in Kandahar or steer away from combat roll beyond 2009 point to a symmetrical ratio among the public opinion at home, the issue turned to take the center stage for NATO allies early last week when defense chiefs from the 26 alliance member-nations' Military Committee visited Canada.

Addressing news reporters upon arrival in Ottawa NATO's top military officer General Ray Henault, a Canadian, Chairman of the alliance military committee, said that even though it rested solely upon Canada to decide whether it wished to maintain combat troops in Afghanistan, but he hoped that the Canadian Government would consider favorably to go on with its involvement in the NATO's mission beyond February 2009.

General Henault's remarks despite the implied propensity to challenge home-based critics and skeptics of the mission in Canada seemed to underscore the growing concern within the alliance about the foreseeable repercussion of the projected shift over the mood of the rest of the members serving in Afghanistan. Because NATO fears that a move by Canada to extricate its troops from the war theater in the restive southern Kandahar, not only will create a force-vacuum to effectively deter Taliban's further resurgence and territorial advance in the region, but could also lead to a likely domino effect amongst the coalition governments, some happen to be politically in the same shoes with Canada.

Most recently, however, the debate over the Canadian mission gained fresh momentum when President Karzai, speaking to Canadian journalists about the future of Afghanistan and the importance of the Canadian mandate made a direct appeal to Canada not to abandon the combat zone in Kandahar.

President Karzai referring to the pre-existing evils and perils which devastated Afghanistan during the Taliban despotic rule, and the interlinked character of the situation in Afghanistan with global security, provided a demonstrative prognosis of how terrorism would pose a threat to Canadians per se, if prematurely left Afghanistan.

President Karzai, meanwhile, in an effort to reassure of his government's aspirations for an early ending of the conflict in Afghanistan, cited his concurrent bid for peace and expressed optimism over the recent peace overtures by the government in Kabul and the readiness shown by some Taliban elements to engage in dialogue, saying he keeps an open arms for those willing to renounce militancy and reintegrate into the society.

Hence, it was obvious that President Karzai, speaking his mind over the fate of the Canadian mission uttered the fact that the unilateral recourse to negotiation with the enemy is what Afghanistan can do at best to maximize the chance for peace and to minimize continuance of the war aimed at helping NATO's mandate to succeed at an expeditious pace. And in fact he strived to take the message across to broader audience that troops-contributing nations need to realize the high stakes for all to fully stabilize Afghanistan, and let not their resolve break before achieving the stated goals.

Nonetheless Mr. Karzai's government bid for reconciliation with the Taliban, already set in motion, must not induce us into upbeat assumptions of winning the war and declaring overnight victory. Because as President Karzai, echoing national sentiments inside Afghanistan, emphatically said Afghanistan will not resort to striking either a power-sharing deal with the Taliban -- those dubbed good or moderate elements -- or heeding their pre-conditions, inter alia, foreign troops pull-out.

This, in addition to the government's pronounced unwavering position -- according to the prevailing longing at both national and international levels -- that the dialogue with the Taliban must not prejudice the historic national, political, social and economic achievements, civil liberties, rights and freedoms, all of which have shaped the present-day democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan.

Therefore and for reasons having to do more with its won safety and security at home, Canada needs to stand its ground over the mission, wait out the outcomes of the recent approach and should avoid spearheading to set the unsound precedent in Afghanistan .

End.

Sharif Ghalib was the first Afghan diplomat to negotiate the establishment of full bilateral diplomatic and consular relations between Afghanistan and Canada at resident-embassy level. He opened the Embassy of Afghanistan in Ottawa in late 2002 and served as the country’s Charge d’Affaires, a.i., and Minister Counselor until 2005.

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