How prophetic

I came across this article first:

Military's rise in public esteem could soon pass, authors warn

David Pugliese
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

The war in Afghanistan and the charisma of Gen. Rick Hillier have provided the Canadian military with widespread public support and a key role in government, but that could prove to be short-lived, warns a new book that examines the attitudes of the next generation of generals.

Followed immediately by this one:

'Remain engaged' in Afghanistan, says Dion

Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says Canada must “remain engaged” in Afghanistan but at the same time give its military the flexibility to deploy elsewhere.

In his party's submission to a panel studying Canada's role in the war on terror, Mr. Dion says a decision to withdraw from combat “does not represent an abandonment of Afghanistan.”

He repeated his position that Canada should notify NATO immediately that it will end its counter-insurgency operations out of Kandahar as scheduled in February next year.

In a related piece, LCol (Ret'd) Normand Levert highlights the dangerous misconception some would have Canadians accept, that of Canada's returning to our "traditional peacekeeping" role with deployments to places like Darfur.

Note: further details of the Betweeen 9/11 to Kandahar b00k can be found on Mr. Pugliese's Ottawa Citizen blog - Defence Watch.