Dion Finally Makes an Appearance in Afghanistan with Igniatieff

Opposition leader Stephane Dion has finally made the trip to Afghanistan, along with Liberal MP, Michael Igniatieff, after promising to do so for many months. According to them, they are on a fact finding mission to set long term goals for Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. This is after they have already decided that the Liberal party’s position is to end Canada’s mission to Afghanistan in 2009.

Dion meets with Karzai in Afghanistan (Natioanl Post)

The thing I find the most disingenuous is the acknowledgement from Mr. Dion that Afghan President Karzai appreciates all the work and support that Canadian troops have given his country, while speaking to reporters in Kabul.

"The president has been very thankful for everything Canadians are doing," Mr. Dion said, during his first trip to Afghanistan as Liberal leader. "Obviously, all our interlocutors would like Canada to be more involved in everything."

In parliament or in his many press conferences, Mr Dion never once seem to be able to express this acknowledgement. Instead it has been focused on the alleged mistreatment of Taliban detainees and being critical of the agreement covering the monitoring of prisoners handed over to the Afghan government by Canadian troops.

What I find interesting is the following:

Although Mr. Ignatieff previously had been a vocal proponent of Canada's military role in Kandahar -- to the point of voting in 2006 to extend the mission by two years - - he echoed the Liberal party line: Canadian soldiers would be able to use force to protect themselves and construction projects undertaken by Canada in Afghanistan, but they would no longer be able to go on the offensive against insurgents.

"If you are under attack you can defend yourself," Mr. Dion said.

Mr. Ignatieff added: "We understand you can't do development without the security."

Mr Dion and Mr. Igniatieff do not seem to see to understand the situation in Kandahar province very well. It is the region in Afghanistan where the Taliban are most active and without these periodic offenses against them, the Taliban would be able to mass their insurgents without any fear of being attacked and threaten even more towns and villages and Canadian troops in coordinated attacks.

In other words, the Canadian soldiers would become sitting ducks, waiting for the next Taliban attack instead of taking the proactive approach of removing the Taliban threat before it is able to attack them. This would mean that even less construction projects will be able to be implemented without being disrupted by Taliban insurgents.

Because of the effectiveness of the Canadian troops and other NATO allies in such offenses, the Taliban have been largely reduced to “hit and run” attacks. If you look at most of the causalities among Canadian troops, it is not from military offences, but from roadside bombings. If we do allow the Taliban insurgents to freely roam around Kandahar without the fear of being challenged, the casualities among NATO allies will not go down, but will most certainly increase.

Hopefully good sense will prevail during the next parliamentary vote on the Afghan mission, but with the NDP and Bloc already opposed, the chances of this happening looks pretty bleak.