The Torch: Afstan: Some clear and honest thinking

I could not agree more:

A member of the Manley panel on Canada's role in Afghanistan says the government's proposed 2011 deadline for a military withdrawal is arbitrary and should not necessarily be binding.

Former TV journalist Pamela Wallin says the overall goal has to be a stable Afghanistan, and abandoning the country before that happens wouldn't make sense.

"I don't think any of us think that some arbitrary date is really going to be it," she said Friday.

"It's a process of getting to that stage where the Afghans will be in the lead. That's what they want, and that's what we want, and whether it's Tuesday or Thursday doesn't matter - we just need to get to that goal, which is everybody's goal."..

...Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed with the Liberals on Thursday to set a firm 2011 end date on the mission in the troubled Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan. That was a significant concession for Harper.

He introduced a revised motion on extending the mission beyond next February and also adopted the Liberal demand that the mission focus on training and reconstruction.

The motion adds that the extension is conditional on the Canadian Forces getting helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft and on NATO finding a battle group of about 1,000 troops to "rotate" into Kandahar by next February. Those were two of the conditions Manley laid out in his report.

Even if the motion is adopted by Parliament, it is not entirely binding. A change of government or a future parliament could set another timeframe for the mission...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed with the Liberals on Thursday to set a firm 2011 end date on the mission in the troubled Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan. That was a significant concession for Harper.

He introduced a revised motion on extending the mission beyond next February and also adopted the Liberal demand that the mission focus on training and reconstruction.

The motion adds that the extension is conditional on the Canadian Forces getting helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft and on NATO finding a battle group of about 1,000 troops to "rotate" into Kandahar by next February. Those were two of the conditions Manley laid out in his report.

Even if the motion is adopted by Parliament, it is not entirely binding. A change of government or a future parliament could set another timeframe for the mission...