The Senlis Council: "Canada in Afghanistan"

I attended an "event" by the Council in Ottawa this morning (thanks to Babbling who gave the impetus) to mark the opening of their Ottawa office. Norine MacDonald (a Canadian), President and Founder, and Lead Field Researcher, gave a presentation based on this policy paper, "Canada in Afghanistan: Charting a New Course to Complete the Mission" and took questions. There was a major media presence including Don Martin (CanWest), Robert Fife (CTV), Murray Brewster (CP) and Julie van Dusen (CBC)--all of whom asked questions--along with some seven people from DND/CF--who stayed quiet.

I will post more tomorrow after digesting how the media coverage compares with the event I attended. The Council's news release is here; it gives a good summary of what Ms. MacDonald said (she is also testifying to the Commons' Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on May 29). One of the Council's key messages is in this excerpt from the news release headers:

Canada must stay in Afghanistan

For the moment I will simply say this. Ms MacDonald has been in Afstan for most of the past two years, largely in Kandahar and environs. She is a most impressive person: intelligent, knowledgeable, articulate, quietly passionate and, I think, a fair-minded straight shooter. She fully supports our combat role in Afstan (though the Council is against aerial bombing). She believes the CF are doing a remarkable job in difficult circumstances but that development and aid failures are jeopardizing the military effort. The CF should stay and no departure date should be set; we must remain until the job is complete, i.e. Afstan enjoys substantial peace and growing prosperity. An unstable Afstan will affect our security for years to come. We need to provide proper funding for the CF's mission, of which Canadians should be proud. As for NATO, all members should be contributing to combat operations.

Money spent on aid and development makes the military mission more achievable and is critical to its success; if one supports funding the military effort one thus should support increased aid and development monies. And here's a real goodie: CF members in Afstan (and in Canada too one infers) should be "let off the leash" and allowed to speak freely about issues such as aid and development, and counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency policy.

Here are two of the Council's key proposals, from the news release (without my personal reactions):

The recommendations called on the Canadian government to relieve CIDA of its responsibility for development efforts in Afghanistan. CIDA would be replaced by the appointment of a Special Envoy to Afghanistan to coordinate development, aid and counter-narcotics policy, with a development and aid budget equal to the military budget [emphasis added].

Ms MacDonald was on CTV's "Canada AM" this morning, news story here. She also was interviewed on CFRA's "Madely in the Morning"--well worth a listen (she says much that I noted above).