Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday in a carefully planned and closely guarded mission to show support for Canadian troops and diplomatic staff.
"These are a great bunch of men and women doing a tough job," said Harper shortly after landing in the southern city of Kandahar.
"We want to make sure they understand their government and the population is behind them."
Harper said the Canadian force in Afghanistan serves the national interest because:
"I thought it was fitting that my first foreign trip would be to go there and lend obvious support," he said.
"If we are going to send them into harm's way, we should be prepared to go there and support them in what they do."
Media sworn to news blackout
The entire Harper visit was arranged with a close eye on security and secrecy. Every journalist travelling with the prime minister had to agree not to break news of the visit before 6 p.m. EST on Sunday.
Media organizations were notified late Friday, not long before Harper, his entourage and reporters took off in a Canadian Forces Airbus from Ottawa.
The flight left at 8 a.m. EST Saturday and stopped to refuel in Zagreb, Croatia. It then headed on to Islamabad, Pakistan, where everyone transferred from the Airbus to a military Hercules aircraft.
"We've been planning this for some time, but we made the final decision [to go] about a week ago," Harper told reporters.
Accepts risks of the trip
Harper acknowledged that his officials had been "fairly careful about information" for security reasons.
He said he accepted any risks that might come with heading into a combat zone.
"These are the responsibilities that go with the office," he said, adding that he views the trip as being in the "national interest."
Mission shouldn't be debated, Harper says
Still, the visit comes amid debate at home about the mission and the loss of Canadian lives in the region.
Canada currently has about 2,300 troops in the country. On Feb. 28, Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser assumed control over the multinational force responsible for southern Afghanistan.
Since early 2002, 10 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan and another 26 Canadian soldiers have been injured.
Harper said "the debate over deployment is over," no matter what surveys of public opinion may suggest.
"I think you can have an opinion poll that shows anything.
"Canadians are always behind our troops wherever they go. And I think the more they understand about the mission and all the things we're doing here, the more support they'll have for the work we're doing."
Canada is committed,we will not "cut and run" he told the troops. Nice to see our troops finally get some support instead of getting ignored. I am trying to remember the last PM to visit our troops in a combat zone. I know our last GG visited the troops at sea and on the ground at Christmas/New Years quite a few times, but the last PM I can think of doing a visit was MacKenzie- King
Canadian troops shoot man in Afghan taxi Canadian Press Kandahar, Afghanistan ??? Canadian troops shot and killed a taxi driver who came too close to their patrol in southern Afghanistan, the Canadian military said Wednesday. Captain Julie Roberge said the shooting happened late Tuesday in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The Canadian military and Afghan police are investigating. The driver of the three-wheeled motorized taxi, known locally as a rickshaw, died in the hospital where he was being treated, she said. He was in his mid-40s. There were no passengers in the taxi when the Canadians fired from an armoured vehicle, Capt. Roberge added. Afghans are warned to keep their distance from the patrols by Canadian armoured convoys because of the threat of suicide attacks, she said. Lieutenant-Colonel Derick Basinger, the chief of staff for Task Force Afghanistan, said the incident happened after the driver of the vehicle ran an Afghan police checkpoint about four kilometres from this former Taliban stronghold. The Canadian vehicles, belonging to the provincial reconstruction team, were well back from the barricade. ???Despite repeated warning by our crew in our vehicles, (he) approached to within two feet of our vehicle,??? Col. Basinger said. A gunner on one of the vehicles fired two warning shots, he said. Due to the constant threat of suicide bombs, other vehicles are not allowed to get very close to Canadian vehicles, Col. Basinger said. He said the local population has been warned repeatedly through signs and radio ads to steer clear of military trucks and armoured vehicles. Suicide bombers have targeted Canadian military vehicles in the country several times, most recently on March 3. That attacked injured one soldier. A Canadian diplomat was killed and three soldiers were wounded on Jan. 15 in another attack. Col. Basinger said Canadian troops have been forced to fire warning shots near approaching vehicles 10 times in the past several months. The independent Canadian Forces National Investigation Service is looking in to the incident, as are Afghan police. A Canadian Forces medic treated the wounded man at the scene but said he did not consider the victim's injuries to be life-threatening. ???The wounds looked less grave than they actually were,??? he said. ???He was evacuated to hospital by Afghan National Police that were at the scene, but he died of his wounds.??? Col. Basinger said military officers were at the hospital trying to figure out exactly what happened, who was killed and to talk to the man's family. source
yeah, Afghanistan was a mess and is slowly getting better.
Just one note, US went there cuz of oil too. They wanted to build an oil pipe from Kazakhstan to Pakistan. Canada is there for mostly general foreign policy reasons.
The difference between Afghanistan and Iraq is the former doesn't look like modern day slavery and that's why there is actually some progress on the field.
oneandonly wrote:Its great that he supports the troops and that he went to see them. But I think the funniest thing is that when he went there, most were out on the biggest mission Canada has taken part in since we got there. Could have planned that one a bit better, perhaps just before the troops left rather than after? But like I said, its good that he supports the troops, thats one of the few areas where I agree with him
whats do you disagree with Harper on? To me, he seems like a swell dude!
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP-CP) -- A purported statement released Thursday by Taliban leader Mullah Omar claimed that large numbers of Afghans were signing up as suicide bombers and that an offensive in the next few months would cause many casualties among foreign and Afghan troops.
The statement was telephoned to Associated Press reporters in Kandahar and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, by purported Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif and was then subsequently received by e-mail from an unidentified sender.
The two-page typed statement ended with a signature supposedly by the fugitive rebel leader. The former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said that it resembled Omar's.
"Young Afghans are coming to mujahedeen camps in large numbers to enrol their names for suicide attacks," the statement said.
"This year, with the beginning of summer, Afghan soil will turn red for the crusaders and their puppets and the occupiers will face an unpredictable wave of Afghan resistance."
Statements attributed to Omar have been released every few months. The previous two -- one in January and the other in November -- also warned of increased attacks.
Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai dismissed Thursday's statement as propaganda and said the insurgents lacked the strength to launch a major new offensive.
Violence normally escalates at the start of Afghanistan's summer, which is several months away, as the snows melt on the high mountain passes that the insurgents use. Violence last year killed 1,600 people, the most since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.
The past six months has seen a wave of some 30 suicide bombings, but such attacks had been rare here. The Taliban commander in the country's south, Mullah Dadullah, said in December that some 200 people had registered for suicide attacks.
Thursday's statement predicted that 2006 will be "the year of success and victory for Muslims."
"Those who have attacked the holy soil of Islam and their puppets will face shameful defeat because Muslims now understand that Western infidels want to eliminate our beliefs, soil and culture and make us their puppets," the statement attributed to Omar said.
About 2,200 Canadian troops are stationed in southern Afghanistan. They are led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who took command of a multinational brigade in the Kandahar region at the end of February.
Updated Sun. Mar. 19 2006 2:34 PM ET
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Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor is adamant that there will be no vote on Canada's role in Afghanistan, even if that vote were to strengthen the Conservatives' mandate to continue that mission.
While Canadian troops have been in the nation since 2001, some have called for new debate as Canadian troops take on a more aggressive combat role that is at odds with Canada's more traditional role as peacekeepers.
However, O'Connor rejected that notion.
"Our policy is that if we take on a new venture in a different country, we will bring that forward to Parliament for a vote," the former general told CTV's Question Period Sunday.
"But this is a continuing commitment. This started in December of 2001."
O'Connor noted that the Conservatives supported the previous Liberal government on three occasions when the Liberals made the initial decision to send troops.
Just weeks ago, most Canadians said they wouldn't personally vote in favour of putting troops in Afghanistan. But, a new poll released earlier this week in the wake of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to the country, now finds a majority of Canadians back the mission even if they don't fully understand it.
The poll conducted by the Strategic Counsel for CTV and The Globe and Mail found that a modest but clear majority of Canadians -- 55 per cent -- now support the decision to send troops to Afghanistan. Only 41 per cent oppose the deployment.
O'Connor told Question Period that Canadians have grown to recognize the importance of Canada's role in Afghanistan.
"In the first instance we're there because it is in our national interests to be there because when that state was allowed to decay we had terrorists come over here to North America...
"We're also there because we're part of the world. We've got to show some leadership in dealing with the world's problems. The third reason we're there is because we need to help rebuild Afghanistan."
The defence minister insisted that Afghanistan would not become "Canada's Iraq" as some critics have suggested, and rejected criticisms that there is no exit strategy for Canadian troops.
O'Connor said that Canadian troops provide security and stability while Afghan military and police units can be trained.
"Once there's the battalions of police and army are trained well enough, they take over a province. In fact, one of the provinces in now completely under the control of the Afghan army and the police.
"So that's the way we're doing it, province by province. We're creating stability, transition, and then exit."
Liberals and NDP disagree on need for new debate
Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Stepahane Dion agreed that there should not be a vote.
"We are against a vote because we should not second-guess when we have an important mission...If there is a sense that we may leave because we have second-guessed, then (Afghans) will be afraid to see the Taliban come back and they will not cooperate with us," he told Question Period.
However, NDP critic Alexa McDonough said the changing nature of the Canadian mission made new debate important.
"I think we have to be very concerned at the growing concern among Canadians about unanswered questions -- about how this mission has changed, in fact, from what was originally anticipated. This is not, as originally proposed, a NATO-led mission."