Military mission in Afghanistan will be over in 2011 but will troops remain?

Cannon's answer is clear and at the same time unclear about whether troops will remain in Afghanistan. The U.S. probably will request more troops and I would not be surprised if Ignatieff might support this if they are involved in other than combat roles. Right now he is just trying to embarrass the Conservatives a bit and put them on the spot. However, he is eliciting nothing but a weasel word response as might be expected. This is from the Globe and Mail.

Afghan withdrawal date puts
Lawrence Cannon in hot seat
Jane Taber

Michael Ignatieff is demanding a vote in Parliament on any extension to the military mission in Afghanistan, accusing the government of conducting foreign policy in secret.
The Liberal Leader was reacting to a report in The Globe and Mail today that the U.S. government will request Canada keep as many as 500 to 600 troops in Afghanistan after the military mission ends in 2011. According to the story, sources inside and outside government say the formal request is expected to come toward the end of the year through NATO.
“Will someone in this government tell us what in heaven’s name is going on?” Mr. Ignatieff demanded in Question Period. “The government didn’t bring this before the Canadian people. This is no way to run the foreign policy of a serious government.
“Will the government commit to putting any deployment in Afghanistan past 2011 to a vote in Parliament?”
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon dismissed the report, saying no request has been received. “Let me reassure the Opposition Leader that our military mission will end in 2011 as we’ve indicated in the Speech from the Throne,” Mr. Cannon said.
The Conservative government has repeatedly said the military mission will end in July 2011.
Earlier today, Stephen Harper, who was in London, Ont. to make a job announcement, called talk of this request entirely speculative. “We’ve received no such request. The Canadian Forces continue to plan for Canada's end to the military mission in 2011,” the Prime Minister said.
But the opposition is having trouble with that.
The NDP is suspicious the government is wording its answers in such a way as to leave the door open for troops to remain in Afghanistan. “Yes or no, all troops gone from Afghanistan in 2011? Yes or No?” demanded NDP deputy leader Thomas Mulcair after accusing Mr. Cannon of answering one way in French and another in English.
“Two very different answers,” Mr. Mulcair said. “One refers to the military mission, the other is a very general statement that we are gone.”
Replied Mr. Cannon: “The military mission will end in 2011.”

Cannon Wants to Push Afghan Mission

No doubt Cannon is being urged to do this by the U.S. No more word on attempts of the U.S. to convince Canada to stay on after 2011. No word word either on the killing of the police chief of Kandahar and other officers by a shadowy private group of guards hired by the U.S. for counter terrorism activities. Canada was involved in securing the area afterward and perhaps also in arresting and disarming them probably at the base outside of Kandahar.

This article is from the Vancouver Sun.


Minister wants to push Afghan mission


It's time for the United Nations to significantly step up its effort in Afghanistan beyond the capital, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon is expected to tell the organization's Security Council today.
While Cannon will say the UN is playing a critical role in helping to organize the upcoming presidential and provincial council elections, he will also call for greater UN presence in areas beyond Kabul where the bulk of Canadian troops operate.
"Strengthening the rule of law in Afghanistan will be a long, hard road," Cannon is expected to tell the Council's 15 member states, who will be meeting to discuss the latest periodic report on the situation in Afghanistan.

Cannon: Canada won't rethink 2011 Afghanistan pullout after Obama win

I hope that some of my leftist friends notice that on Afghanistan Obama is far to the right of Cannon and Harper. Actually that is probably not correct. Obama is far to the right of the Canadian people on Afghanistan. If he were Prime Minister of Canada he would dare not suggest there be a surge in Afghanistan with Canadian troops. Or perhaps the truth is that the American people are gung ho for US imperialism at least until it kills so many of them and costs so much that they may tend to get a bit war weary. Obama wants to increase the size of the US military. Given that minorities including blacks often find employment in the military when jobs are scarce perhaps an increase in the military will be Obama's way of helping minorities!

Canada won't rethink 2011 Afghanistan pullout after Obama win: Cannon
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 8:46 PM ET
CBC News
The election of a new U.S. president who has vowed to deploy thousands more troops into Afghanistan won't cause Canada to reconsider its decision to pull out of the country by 2011, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday.
The United States already has 36,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Barack Obama promised during his campaign for the presidency to send up to 12,000 more while scaling down operations in Iraq.
But Cannon said Obama's election would have no impact on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to withdraw Canadian forces from the country.
"We welcome the renewed focus on Afghanistan on behalf of the president-elect," Cannon said. "The U.S. interest won't change our opinion or intention to withdraw our forces in 2011."
Cannon, who took over the Foreign Affairs portfolio from retiring Conservative MP David Emerson, also insisted that Canadian soldiers would not be redeployed away from the volatile Kandahar province to safer parts of the country after the date.
Harper made his own view explicitly clear during the recent federal election, when he said it was time to put an end date on Canada's military commitment.
Karzai urges halting air strikes
Obama, the Democratic candidate, opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 from the beginning, saying it distracted the focus and critically needed military resources away from the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Following Obama's election victory Tuesday night, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that the newly-elected leader change U.S. tactics to reduce the number of civilian casualties, particularly from air strikes in recent months.
It came as villagers said U.S. warplanes killed 37 people — nearly all of them women and children — during a cat-and-mouse hunt for militants.
"We cannot win the fight against terrorism with air strikes," President Hamid Karzai said. "This is my first demand of the new president of the United States — to put an end to civilian casualties."
The alleged strikes came only three months after the Afghan government concluded that a U.S. operation killed some 90 civilians in western Afghanistan. After initially denying any civilians had died in that attack, a U.S. report ultimately concluded that 33 were killed.
Canada has about 2,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan, mostly in Kandahar. Since 2002, 98 Canadians have died in Afghanistan.With files from the Canadian Press