New Media

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 Canadian nation endured an awful, endless sleep occasionally punctuated by vicious nightmares of Taliban thugs running wild across a blood-soaked plain. Finally, injected with some new serum, the chief ingredient being a healthy dose of political courage, this nation wakes with a start.

But now that they’ve woken, will they take action? Perhaps…

Segal commended Harper for staying true to the 2008 parliamentary motion that set the 2011 end-date for the military mission. But what’s needed now is “vision and renewed commitment” to the country and the international effort.

This is the time to examine all possible Canadian contributions to the Afghan mission, not to close the door on allies the country has been fighting beside for nearly a decade, Segal said.

“I’m making the case for consideration … that it’s wrong for all Canadians to withdraw, it’s wrong for us to only have a civilian presence, because who’s going to provide security for them?” he said in an interview.

The future is looking a bit brighter.

Certain faculty at the University of Regina have brought shame to their institution in asking for withdrawal of support for the Project Hero scholarship program. From the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee blog:

There is something perverse in faculty of a university calling for the end of education supports for those whose families have given so much for this country. Even worse, the ludicrous and buffoonish characterization by supposedly educated people that our engagement is a wicked “imperialist” venture calls into question these critics’ abilities as critical thinkers and as educators.

Their uninformed analysis ignores the views of Afghans on the matter, and their extremist, relativist views make a mockery of scholarship. An embarrassment to Canada, they are sending out the message that human rights, security and peace are only for those in the West.

See the original embarrassing statement of the faculty here.

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.

During the Vietnam war, American forces were obsessed with body counts. In a jungle war where the South Vietnamese and US forces were theoretically in control of all territory, while actual military control extended only to the nearest treeline, counting enemy deaths served as some kind of grotesque marker for military success. In the end, these metrics were utterly beside the point. The Americans bugged out under the cover of a peace deal that was promptly torn up as communist tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon.

Americans and NATO forces like our own don’t publicize body counts anymore. It’s not just because Vietnam tainted the practice. Partly, this is because they work for politicians elected by populations that have only rarely been comfortable with the scale of carnage made possible by industrial methods. Body counts may have helped certain soldiers win promotions, but this sort of information doesn’t do much to win the hearts and minds of the home front. Instead, we focus today on the more traditional metrics of success on the battlefield — territory and the support of the people who dwell within it.

These days, it is the Taliban who are obsessed with body counts — as usual, without distinguishing combatants and civilians. In the heart of Kabul, seventeen Afghans and foreigners were murdered this morning by suicide attackers. The enemy boasts of their “glorious” victory over medical doctors, a documentary film-maker, government officials and three Afghan policemen. It was a brutal act, only slightly dulled in its effect by the parade of Taliban atrocities that have come before it.

While the Taliban are focused on the body counts of doctors, film makers, aid workers and ordinary Afghan civilians, ISAF and the Afghan National Army are concentrating on the end-game. It’s not about counting corpses — it’s about boots on the ground and ordinary Afghans having a chance to get on with their lives without worrying about getting their throats slit by barbarians.

We’re still early into this surge, as our own soldiers and our allies have finally been given the resources they need to do the job. But the early signs are promising. Finally, we can start looking at what comes after the thugs have been routed. By 2011, we may already be a good ways along this road.

Further Reading
On This Day, The Birthday Of The Prophet: A Taliban Atrocity In The Streets of Kabul
Turning the Tide Against the Taliban

What’s in store for Canada in Afghanistan post-2011?

The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee (CASC) will unveil its Vision for Canada’s Role in Afghanistan Post-2011 on March 9 at the National Archives Hall in Ottawa. The event, called “Canada and Afghanistan: Keeping Our Promises”, is hosted by the Free Thinking Film Society of Ottawa and is also a fundraiser for the Afghan School Project.

Tickets: $30 regular admission, $15 students
• Purchase tickets online:
Online at http://www.canilf.org/news/
• Purchase tickets in person:
Ottawa Folklore Centre (1111 Bank Street, Ottawa)
Compact Music (190 Bank; 7851 ½ Bank Street, Ottawa)