Tony Lambert delphine1939@videotron.ca

18 janvier 2008

The Gazette Montreal

Published: 12 hours ago

Diplomatic intervention. Diplomatic. That's what Stéphane Dion was really talking about, he told The Gazette's editorial board (and anyone else who would listen) yesterday. And we believe him.

Newspaper reports yesterday indicated the Liberal leader, just back from a trip to Afghanistan, was actually proposing a NATO military incursion into northwest Pakistan - not an idea anybody could take seriously.

Meeting our editorial board, Dion set the record straight and offered a vigorous defence of his party's position on Canada's role in Afghanistan, which is basically "no more combat after February 2009, no matter what."

Suddenly that date, the limit set by Parliament (on a 149-145 vote) in May 2006, is only 13 months away. But major NATO members such as Germany and France keep their troops above the fray, quartered safe, barricaded behind thick "caveats" against combat. And so the clock is ticking loudly on Canada's military effort.

In Afghanistan last weekend, Dion told us, he became the first person to tell President Hamid Karzai "what most Canadians think," which is that we can't be expected to fight indefinitely. The Liberal leader also pointed out that in December, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, announcing an extension to July 2010 for his country's combat contingent, said clearly there would be no further extension. And, Dion said, if time-limited commitments must become open-ended after starting, no country will ever again make a commitment. The best way for Canada to put pressure on recalcitrant allies, he added, is to insist on abandoning our combat role in 13 months, creating a vacuum that larger NATO countries will have to fill.

To all of which we can only reply: yes, but. Everyone agrees that what's really needed is for France, Germany and others to pull their weight. But the people of those countries ask, as Canadians do, must this go on forever?

It's true "defence, development and diplomacy" have not made Afghanistan safe and peaceful. Closing that border with Pakistan would certainly help, but is easier said than done. Still, life in Afghanistan is getting better; returning refugees, school openings, and a growing economy attest to that. These, not body counts, are the real benchmarks of success for the NATO mission.

Eventually, the Afghan government will have to stand on its own feet, militarily and otherwise. But when? Elections to the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghanistan's legislature, are set for September 2009. A presidential election comes three months later. How well those elections go, and how strong a government emerges, will tell us a lot about the country's prospects. Holding on at least until then, in the hope that a clearer situation will spur our supposed allies to action, would not be unreasonable.

For an audio recording from Stéphane Dion's wide-ranging conversation (in English and French) with our editorial board: www.montrealgazette.com