Harper
or Hillier, who are Canadians to Believe
By:
The Honourable Denis Coderre, Liberal Defence Critic
Canada faces a serious foreign policy decision about our future involvement in Afghanistan.
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has been crystal clear about how the government should handle our continued involvement in Afghanistan. Although we may continue to train the Afghan army and police, and should undoubtedly continue humanitarian aid, we should notify our NATO allies immediately that our combat mission in Afghanistan will end in February 2009.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been anything but clear.
Although the Prime Minister has tried to remove this issue from political debate by appointing a panel of distinguished Canadians to review our options, it appears that the Prime Minister has already decided to extend the current mission past 2009.
What is worse is that the goals the Prime Minister is setting for our success in Afghanistan do not even match up with his revised time frame.
After previously refusing to advise our allies that our combat mission will end in 2009, Mr. Harper, through the recent Speech from the Throne (SFT), has now indicated that the he is planning to extend Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan past February 2009.
The SFT suggested that Canada would remain in southern Afghanistan until the Afghan National Army was prepared to take on responsibility for the security of the country. The speech added: "This will not be completed by February 2009, but our government believes this objective should be achievable by 2011.”
Late last week, speaking from Afghanistan, Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff Rick Hillier refuted this overly optimistic timeline, saying that it could take 10 to 15 years to train senior military leaders who would bring stability to the region.
Who are we to believe, a Prime Minister who seems to be discretely moving the finish line or Canada’s most senior military official who actually has experience dealing with conflicts like that in Afghanistan?
Without a majority government Mr. Harper does not currently have a blank cheque to do what he wants, but his evasive style and tendency to unilaterally change the terms of debate should make Canadians very nervous about what he would do with a majority Conservative government.
It is time for Prime Minister Harper to be clear with Canadians and our allies about how long Canada expects to be in Afghanistan and what role we are going to play while we are there.
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Contact:
Honourable Denis Coderre, P.C., M.P.
(613) 995-6108
