Afstan: Haroon Siddiqui is economical with the truth/MND tentative

The Toronto Star's most prominent opponent of our Afghan mission doesn't quite give the whole story:

...
NATO is not winning. As the head of U.S. National Intelligence told Congress yesterday, Kabul controls less than a third of the country...

Now I bet most Canadians would infer that means the Taliban control most of the rest. This though is what the Director actually said:

...
"The Taliban was able to control ... in the area about 10 to 11 percent [emphasis added] of the country," Mike McConnell, US Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said in testimony before the Senate's Armed Services Committee.

The US-backed Hamid Karzai government meanwhile, controls just "30, 31 percent, and then the rest of it was local control [emphasis added, tribal mainly]," McConnell told lawmakers...

And of course Mr Siddiqui plays the Bush card:

...the Conservatives have been as sure-footed as the Republicans. As advocates of war, both have had clarity of purpose [could have fooled us at The Torch].

Stephen Harper and Gen. Rick Hillier are also using the same unsavoury tactics as George W. Bush and the American commander in Afghanistan – namely, that any democratic expression of doubt about the war is tantamount to aiding and abetting the enemy...

Meanwhile the MND tells the simple truth--but in a rather tentative fashion:

There will be times after 2009 when Canadian troops will have to be engaged in combat in Afghanistan and the timing of such decisions are best left to commanders on the ground [I should hope so - MC], Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday...

...MacKay says he believes the Liberals are realistic and have come to the conclusion that there are times when fighting will be necessary.

"I think there is a general acceptance by the Liberal party, certainly an understanding on our part, that these operations decisions often do involve combat, that involve in engaging in fighting with the Taliban, when the Taliban confront them," he said at an update briefing Wednesday...