Canada, U.S. stuck in muddle in Afghanistan

By GREG WESTON

Listening to Stephen Harper and Barack Obama after their Washington hug-in yesterday, ordinary Canadians might be excused for thinking Afghanistan is no longer about winning, but how the heck do we get out of there.

The two leaders emerged from their 75 minutes behind closed doors with the usual declaration that Canada and the United States remain the closest of friends and allies.

No news there, but considering what the U.S. president has on his plate these days, the big wonder is Harper got Obama's ear at all.

But on the Afghanistan conflict, the only concurrence between the two leaders seems to be their mutual admission that the war is not going well and that neither the U.S. nor its allies -- including Canada -- has any clear exit strategy.

Earlier this year, Obama ordered another 17,000 American troops into Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban.

But after his meeting Wednesday with Harper, the president was emphatic that the U.S. would not be committing any more human or other resources to Afghanistan until there is a clear strategy going forward.

As Obama put it: "You certainly don't make determinations about sending young men and women into battle without having absolute clarity about what the strategy is going to be."

Canada has a different problem -- an increasingly dubious strategy to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan in 2011, turning over responsibility for peace and security to the Afghan national police and armed forces.

Under the Harper government's plan, Canada would continue to provide development and humanitarian assistance after our troops are gone.

But what if the Afghans aren't ready, able or even willing to provide a level of security needed to allow humanitarian projects to proceed without aid workers being blown up or gunned down?

The question is becoming less hypothetical by the day.

Earlier this week, the Harper government released its latest quarterly progress report on Afghanistan showing the worst deterioration of security and biggest increase in attacks since the fall of the Taliban eight years ago.

On the same day, a United Nations-connected agency monitoring the recent elections in Afghanistan issued a damning report, all but declaring the voting a farce.

The sitting government of Hamid Karzai is plagued by corruption, while the country's poppy trade continues to fund the Taliban, and feed the world's appetite for heroin.

For all this, as Harper and Obama were meeting in Washington, another Canadian soldier was being delivered home for burial.

Not surprisingly, public support for a war that seems to be achieving little continues to erode in both the U.S. and Canada.

For the first time in this country, polls are showing a majority of Canadians want not only our troops out of combat, but Canada out of Afghanistan. Period.

During the last federal election a year ago, Harper was clear: "We are planning for our withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan in 2011."

In Washington yesterday, the PM said: "Canada is not leaving Afghanistan; Canada will be transitioning from a predominantly military mission that will be a civil humanitarian mission after 2011."

Canadian voters may well beg to differ.