Harper prepares final pitch for more help in Afghanistan

This is from the Star. This is all smoke and mirrors and made-up news. The NATO meeting will pay little attention to Harper and Canada and a lot of attention to Bush and his push to have Georgia and the Ukraine become members of NATO. The Canada commitment is a done deal and all that is left is useless whining and wringing of hands about NATO countries refusing to meet their obligations. Bush will not lose the opportunity to have Canadians serve as cannon fodder in his war against terror aka U.S. imperialism at work. He also will be happy for Canadian taxpayers to buy Boeing helicopters and whomever makes drones.
If no one else comes through the U.S. will send the troops to the south. Lets hope this does not mean even more friendly fire losses. Is it proper to fly the flag at half mast when a Canadian soldier is killed in friendly fire? In an accident? Because of some illness contracted in Afghanistan?
I can see the new policy. Ottawaians (or whatever they are) will say: Wow. How come the flag is not at half mast today?


Harper prepares final pitch for more help in Afghanistan
TheStar.com - World - Harper prepares final pitch for more help in Afghanistan

BUSH PLEDGE

U.S. President George W. Bush has made an "iron-clad commitment" to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to provide the 1,000 troops to bolster the NATO mission in southern Afghanistan, CTV News reported last night.

The Canadian Press



Mixed messages from NATO's Bucharest summit over Canada's demand for 1,000 additional soldiers

April 02, 2008
Mitch Potter
Allan Woods
Staff Reporters

BUCHAREST–Prime Minister Stephen Harper will today have a final opportunity to underline Canada's make-or-break policy in Afghanistan as NATO leaders gather in the Romanian capital in a summit to revive the flagging mission.

Even as his cabinet colleagues play down expectations for a breakthrough, Harper is to take centre stage alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the secretary generals of both NATO and the United Nations in adiscussion titled "Afghanistan: Success Not in Sight, Failure Not an Option."

Harper's appearance alongside the three principal players in the Afghan effort – described by one NATO insider as "a gesture of respect for Canada" – comes amid deepening concerns the Bucharest summit will fall significantly short of its goal of levelling the burden borne by the 39 nations involved.

Mixed messages continued to cast doubts over what is to be announced tomorrow, when Harper and his fellow leaders hope to emerge from a closed-door session with a positive response to Ottawa's demands for a minimum 1,000 additional soldiers – plus transport helicopters and aerial surveillance drones – to extend to 2011 the mission in restive Kandahar Province.

France, the target of an intense diplomatic courtship by Ottawa in recent months, signalled again yesterday it would answer at least some of Canada's needs.

"There have been specific requests, notably from the Netherlands and Canada. It is impossible to shy away from our responsibilities. This commitment honours France," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told the National Assembly in Paris.

Kouchner's comments come in the wake of media leaks indicating President Nicolas Sarkozy comes to Bucharest poised to announce the deployment of some 1,000 French soldiers to eastern Afghanistan, rather than the south, where Canada's needs are all too clear.

The matter was further clouded yesterday by Prime Minister François Fillon, who said Sarkozy hasn't made a final decision on the deployment and added that it could be "in the order of several hundred extra soldiers."

Uncertainty over the outcome at Bucharest – the 20th such gathering in the transatlantic alliance's 59-year history – prompted one senior NATO official to say he could not remember another summit where there were so many unanswered questions ahead of its formal opening.

New NATO memberships, missile defence for Europe, NATO's relationship with Russia and the overriding issue of NATO's future will be debated, and in some cases decided and formalized.

Apart from the divisive issue of burden-sharing in Afghanistan, much of the debate is expected to centre on the wording of two draft documents that grapple with the need to reconcile conflicting strategies on how to put the mission back on track.

"Right now there is tension over timelines and benchmarks, some still written in brackets, that spell out how NATO will move forward, in terms of the size and schedule for training and equipping the Afghan army and police to take over their own country," one senior NATO source told the Star.

"Some countries are uncomfortable committing to those details and the debate continues. They might be arguing this out behind the scenes until midnight. Or maybe until they start the actual meeting on Afghanistan (tomorrow)."

A second, less contentious document, described as "essentially a renewal of vows" on the mission in Afghanistan, is also expected after tomorrow's meeting.

Before landing in Bucharest, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said that, while the government has "done everything humanly possible" to win the support of NATO allies in Kandahar, the actual results of its efforts may not be known at Bucharest.

"Keep in mind we do have until February 2009 to fulfill those commitments," he told reporters aboard a government airplane shortly before he and Harper touched down.

"The sooner the better, the more the better. That's what we've been saying all along.

"But as far as getting those commitments for every single piece of equipment and personnel, that remains to be seen."