Afstan: What should Canada do?

Conservative Senator Michael Meighen, deputy chair of the Senate Committee Committee on National Security and Defence, says in an interview with Michael Harris of CFRA, Ottawa, that the withdrawal option is largely aimed at putting pressure on the larger NATO allies to start fighting.

You will note that Mr Harris interviews the Senator intelligently enough. But some minutes earlier he had said that Canada, to keep up our effort in Afghanistan, would be (a direct quote from memory) "pissing away" billions of dollars. I wonder why he did not put the matter to the Senator in those terms. One attitude when attitudinizing, another when interviewing, with a pretended decent respect for the opinion of the interviewee. Maudit hypocrite--or suck up?

Somewhat earlier on Feb. 13 there was a discussion on CFRA's "Lunch Bunch" with Scott Taylor (just back from Afghanistan) of Esprit de Corps magazine (part 1 and part 2). Mr Taylor cannot quite bring himself to advocate a rapid withdrawal of Canadian troops; he does skate hard to avoid distinguishing between the fairly violent south and the generally peaceful rest of the country.

Mr Taylor also makes something of the fact that the CF at Kandahar have Tim Horton's and Afghans are dirt poor (literally true for most of them). But our troops do fight. Are the amenities of such non-fighting members of ISAF as the Spanish, Germans, Italians or French not also worth discussion? ? Currywurst, anyone?