"Playing the body count for votes"

Read this superb and comprehensive article by Jack Granatstein; a taste:

...the NDP would far prefer Canada's troops be deployed to Darfur in Sudan than to Kandahar. There, the UN would be in charge, or so Layton appears to believe.

There are, of course, a few practical problems with a Darfur operation. The Khartoum government refuses entry to UN troops and threatens a jihad against them if they dare to come. Moreover, Canada has no way to get troops to Darfur (even if it had the troops to send), no way to support them logistically in a barren area of the world, and no way to get them out in an emergency. Finally, the casualties in Darfur might be far higher than in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, because the U.S. is (relatively) uninvolved and because women and children are being brutalized, Darfur is the NDP's preferred operation...

What Layton refuses to acknowledge is that the Afghan operation has been sanctioned by repeated UN resolutions, and is yet another military operation sub-contracted by the UN to those who are willing to pick up the burden. The UN's undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, says bluntly that traditional UN peacekeepers can't do the job in Afghanistan where robust forces are needed to take on the Taliban insurgents. The world organization wants its political and humanitarian efforts -- and, not least, its efforts to assist women and children -- in Afghanistan to succeed, and Guehenno understands that without military action, the development and stabilization efforts could be stymied. The undersecretary-general last week even congratulated Canada for sending tanks to Kandahar.

Not one Canadian in a hundred, and certainly not Layton and friends, understands that the UN considers the troops fighting in Afghanistan to be carrying out a Security Council mandate. The Canadian government would be wise to make this clear to the public...

So, claiming to support our troops, Layton's NDP wants our soldiers to concentrate on reconstruction and to opt out of an unwinnable war. Every Canadian wants an end to the war in Afghanistan and the establishment of a government that can control this tribalized, dangerous state. Unfortunately, it will take combat to hold down the Islamist terrorists sufficiently to allow reconstruction and development to proceed. Ottawa understands this and even the United Nations does.

Why doesn't Jack Layton get the message? The reason is clear: He believes that he can parlay Canadian casualties in Kandahar and strident anti-Americanism in Canada into votes in the next election. He might be right, but Canadians should understand the bald-faced cynicism that underlies his policy.