Fingers crossed

If this article by Bruce Campion-Smith is accurate - and I'd suggest that it is - it would be a bona-fide Big Deal^TM:

The United Arab Emirates may send troops to work alongside Canadians in southern Afghanistan, sources say.

The move, which could come this fall, would mark a military and diplomatic coup for Canada, which had been urging the tiny Arab nation to contribute soldiers and equipment to the mission to put a "Muslim face" on the international coalition.

It comes at a time when Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been pressing nations to contribute more to help stabilize Afghanistan.

Canadian diplomats and defence officials made overtures to the UAE in January to get involved in the mission. Now a tentative plan is being discussed for the deployment of a small – but highly symbolic – UAE force to serve under the leadership of Canadian officials.

When news of this initiative was first mistakenly released by bureaucrats responding to an ATI request, I was livid that such an important step could potentially be undermined by irresponsible politicians and journalists. That our gaffe hasn't dissuaded the UAE is an encouraging relief. That country's active participation would be invaluable, for all the reasons I outlined in my original blog post linked above, and also in an article by Kevin Steel in a recent issue of the Western Standard (registration req'd):

Brooks says that a lot of his military contacts believe Canada's problem in Afghanistan is too few boots on the ground [Babbler: only one of our problems...]. "That's been going up, but there are two issues here: one is the number of boots and the other is the type of boots," he says. One of the things the Taliban has been using as a recruitment tool is the rallying cry of removing the infidels from a Muslim country. "But if you have Sunni Muslims on the ground supporting the government," Brooks notes, "it takes a lot of wind out of that particular sail." So far, the UAE has not committed, he adds. "So does this [the NDP release of information] hurt our troops on the ground? Sure it does," he says.

While the UAE has been a staunch supporter of the Afghan mission, that support has mostly been behind the scenes or indirect. Let's hope that this diplomatic project bears fruit, and that the UAE steps up its participation in this critical mission to help the Afghan people, and so help ourselves live in a more peaceful and secure world.