Afstan: Ways ahead

1) Former CDS Gen. (ret'd) Rick Hillier nudges Canadian politicians:

The job of bringing stability to Afghanistan won't be finished in 2011 when Canada is scheduled to withdraw its troops, one of the country's best-known generals said in London today.

Continued international support well beyond that date will be required to give Afghanis a chance to rebuild their country, said Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian Forces from 2005 and 2008.

Whether Canada goes as scheduled or remains will be a "sovereign decision" for the county to make as the deadline approaches, said Hillier.

Conditions may look different then than they do now, he said, suggesting Canadian political leaders need to take that into account.

A surge of U.S. troops into Afghanistan ordered by President Barrack Obama should provide a boost to a country trying to get on its feet again, said Hiller...

2) The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford blasts her Globe colleague Geoffrey Simpson, and the Toronto Star's James Travers, Haroon Siddiqui and Thomas Walkom:

It took “a long time for this elementary truth to be spoken,” my colleague Jeffrey Simpson wrote this week under a headline, “Yes, the Afghan mission is ‘failing' and, yes, the rituals continue.”

He was quoting, with approval and that weary wisdom common to those who live in Central Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent remarks on CNN to the effect that military victory isn't possible in Afghanistan.

“Now pouring out of Stephen Harper,” wrote James Travers of the Toronto Star on the same subject, “is the smoke that the Taliban can't be beaten.” His colleague, Haroon Siddiqui, said, “the Prime Minister says NATO cannot win, period. So what are we doing there?” The previous week, Mr. Travers's and Mr. Siddiqui's colleague, Thomas Walkom, said of the PM's acknowledgment, “I find this admission breathtaking … if the Taliban can't be beaten, what are Canadian troops doing in Afghanistan? If the Taliban can't be beaten, why are our soldiers still dying? [see Upperdate here]”

Collectively, the pundits were surprised, if modestly pleased, that the Canadian PM had finally smartened up and was now seeing the war as they do, to quote Mr. Simpson, as “an ill-defined mission that defied all the rules of counterinsurgency,” led by “an enthusiastic general [this would be the former Canadian Forces' boss, Rick Hillier]” who bamboozled both press and politicians.

Wow: I don't know where these boys, including the PM, have been since 2006, when Canadian troops arrived in Kandahar; well I do know, and the answer is Ottawa and Toronto...

The CNN interview, March 1:

The views of two Afghan ambassadors are here.

3) A large international conference is called; I can't see anything very concrete, or useful, coming out of such a crowd:

70 countries to attend Afghanistan summit

The Netherlands has sent out official invitations for the Afghanistan summit due to be held on 31 March in The Hague. Over 70 countries and nine organisations, including the UN and NATO, have been invited. Among them are Afghanistan's neighbours, including Iran, which has confirmed it will attend [emphasis added]. Latin American countries [?!?], Gulf States and Libya are also sending delegations. The summit will tackle Afghanistan's administration, security and future development. A number of small leftist groups have announced demonstrations against the summit.