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How many times do “peace” negotiations need to literally blow up in this statesman’s face before he finally gets it?

Once again, Afghan President Hamid Karzai attempts to jump-start peace talks with the Taliban.

And for the umpteenth time, the Taliban tell Karzai and the rest of the world they’re not interested in stopping the violence. And they do it in their usual way: guns blazing, mortars firing, suicide bombers bearing down on unarmed civilians.

When is Karzai going to get it? You don’t negotiate with these people. You hunt the Taliban down and kill every one of them you can find until their last shell-shocked comrades wave the white flag.

Canadians have made huge sacrifices in this country. We have the right to insist the government we’re supporting get on board with a plan for total victory. Completely contrary to what Karzai seems to think, anything less is just going to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan even longer.

Trying very hard not to look a gift horse in the mouth, here. The Conservatives’ new commitment of 90 trainers for the Afghan National Army and police, bringing out total commitment to nearly 3000 personnel, is certainly welcome news. This is totally consistent with what is being asked for by Afghans, Afghan Canadians, analysts and others who just want to see that country’s positive metrics (personal freedoms, access to health care and education, sparks of economic development) keep going up in the face of a dedicated insurgency.

That said, why are these new trainers going to stick to what pretty well everyone agrees was a limited and fairly arbitrary deadline at the end of 2011? From my post on the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee blog:

The deadline MacKay and others refer to is the end of our formal support for the Canadian battlegroup’s presence in Kandahar (not necessarily, as some believe, a predetermined end for ALL military support for Afghanistan). Yet a scaled down mission more focused on training, consultation with NATO and the Afghan government and perhaps protection of our own humanitarian aid and development assistance personnel, ought not be lumped into the same pile. Deadlines are fine, but they ought to be informed by the actual situation on the ground, not determined on a whim.

An Overview of Canada’s Training Effort in Afghanistan

The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee has released a report urging Canada to continue an active role in Afghanistan after the military mission ends next year. Committee co-founder Terry Glavin and Nasrine Gross, an Afghan-American writer at Kabul University, discuss the situation on the ground.

No retreat. No “reconciliation” with psychotic thugs. No backroom deals with those who intend to turn Afghanistan into a vast refugee camp full of militant religious fanatics.

That’s the view from pretty well everyone in Afghanistan worth quoting about President Hamid Karzai’s clumsy and self-defeating efforts to somehow bring the Taliban into the fold of the government.

“The sacrifices you have made here, and all your taxpayers’ money. What for? You will have to ask that,” Mr. Abdullah said in an interview.

He said Canada would not be trespassing on Afghanistan’s sovereignty if it moves to block a “reconciliation” deal that circumvents Afghanistan’s parliamentary system. More importantly, he said, Canada is burdened by a duty to its own citizens to see that it does not happen.

“You have more than a right to stay firm in that,” Mr. Abdullah said. “Not just for the sake of any Afghan persons or an Afghan movement, but for the sake of the sacrifices you have made here. You are not in the business of betraying your own people. In that sense, it is an obligation.”

The full story by Terry Glavin, reporting from Afghanistan, is at the National Post, ‘STAY FIRM’ AGAINST TALIBAN: ABDULLAH. Read every word.

Spare a thought for heroes clearing a far-away land of thugs and monsters. Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan is well underway, with our Afghan allies aided by ISAF forces overrunning Taliban-held territory.

With the enemy mostly melting away in the face of superior firepower, with the exception of a rearguard action by some desperate suicide attackers, the next objective will be to hold these gains. Nothing less than the future of Afghanistan is at stake.

It’s long past time for our politicians to acknowledge the critical events happening on the ground in Afghanistan right now and provide real leadership. With victory in sight, there is no reason to be shy about having a discussion that many Canadians — not least, Afghan Canadians, have been wanting for some time.

Armed Forces hail Moshtarak success